At your mothers treatment facility, ask about what they offer to help support cancer patients. Here in the US, depression and anxiety are prevalent with cancer patients and caregivers. Many will seek out a therapist and quite a few will need anxiety meds on a temporary basis. Family counseling may be an option where your mother is being treated.

Hopefully the facility you mentioned your mother is being treated at will be one of your countries top facilities. We do have some members from Australia but they may not be actively posting right now. Im sorry but OCF does NOT have info about what international centers are the best or who is affiliated with who. The best places in the US for patients to get treated are called comprehensive cancer centers (CCC's). The top CCCs use a team based approach where all the specialists work together so everyone is on the same page. The US CCCs attract the brightest and most talented physicians who are the most experienced in complex cases and rare cancers and are often teaching hospitals. This info might be helpful when seeking treatment centers in countries outside of the US.

When looking at the very best cancer treatment facilities, please use caution when you vet them! Unfortunately, cancer treatment is a BIG business where there are far too many unscrupulous people who are only looking to fill their pockets. Patients and their families are especially vulnerable when first diagnosed, they're understandably upset and not sure where to go or what places are the best for their situation. Be especially careful making calls to unknown international facilities! You definitely do NOT want to end up calling a "for profit" type facility that is heavily advertised or some back alley clinic that does not comply with regular medical treatments or guidelines. These organizations often only accept certain cancer patients/conditions that are the easiest to treat making their rate of success appear much higher than if they accepted all cancer types and patients. These so-called "cancer centers" are very deceitful and only have their eyes on their bottom line and not patients welfare. They are so tricky you will sometimes see these facilities use cancer center as part of their name to make patients think their facility is an accredited one thats a top clinic. Sadly, there are far too many people/businesses who take advantage of cancer patients and their families with false claims and fake cures.

Even if you name where your mother is being treated, being that Im in the US, I would have no idea what places are good and which one arent. Plus OCF is NOT a doctor/hospital referral or rating organization. For those types of things you will need to find something in your country that provides that type of rating service. Here at OCF, its best to leave out specific doctors names and to be very careful when posting the names of treatment facilities. We can NOT allow the posting of any negative info associated with any doctor or treatment facilities name to be written on our public forum.

The best thing you can do to help your mother is to read and learn about your mothers cancer. By being an informed caregiver it will help make you a strong advocate for your mother. I posted a couple links on my previous reply. Take some time and read thru the main OCF site. Theres page after page of info to help you better understand cancer and how its treated. Its certainly is a small world having another patient join OCF who had ACC recently. While every patient is different and will respond to things in their own unique way, Im sure you find it comforting having another ACC patient/survivor who is actively posting. Our site helps make the world a much smaller place! Members become friends, often very close friends which are like long lost relatives. Ive made many close friends from all over the world and been fortunate enough to have been able to meet many OC patients/survivors and caregivers in person at different OCF events over the years. Knowing theres others out there who have been thru similar situations helps to create strong bonds. Im sure your mother will find great comfort in knowing she isnt alone with her illness.