4 Important Steps to Take After a Cancer Diagnosis

Each year, more than 1.7 million people in the United States hear three dreaded words: You have cancer. As common as cancer is, no one expects cancer to happen to them.

We understand, as patients and as caregivers, how frightening a cancer diagnosis can be: how it can upend your life, leaving you feeling like you’re barely treading water. And we know that making tough decisions when your life depends on it is not easy.

From our research at Harvard Business School of how people navigate their cancer treatment (and what they wish they had known sooner), we have developed four steps that all people with cancer can take to give them the best chance at beating the disease.