ASCO: You’re listening to a podcast from Cancer.Net. This cancer information website is produced by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, known as ASCO, the world’s leading professional organization for doctors who care for people with cancer. The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Cancer research discussed in this podcast is ongoing, so the data described here may change as research progresses. Brielle Gregory Collins: Hi, everyone. I'm Brielle Gregory Collins, a member of the Cancer.Net content team, and I'll be your host for today's Cancer.Net podcast. Cancer.Net is the patient information website of ASCO, the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Today we're going to be talking about social determinants of health and how they can impact people with cancer. We'll cover economic stability, neighborhood, community, education, food access, and health systems. Our guest today is Dr. Karen Winkfield. Dr. Winkfield is a board-certified radiation oncologist and Ingram Professor of Cancer Research at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tennessee, and the executive director of the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance. She is also the Cancer.Net Associate Editor for Radiation Oncology and Health Equity. Thanks for joining us today, Dr. Winkfield. Dr. Karen Winkfield: Thank you so much for having me, Brielle. I'm so excited for this podcast. Brielle Gregory Collins: Yes, so are we. Before we begin, we should mention that Dr. Winkfield does not have any relationships to disclose related to this podcast, but you can find her full disclosure statements on Cancer.Net. Now, to get started, Dr. Winkfield, how would you define a social determinant of health? Dr. Karen Winkfield: Yeah, it's such a big concept, right? The social determinants of health, the economic and social conditions that impact and influence the way that people, individuals, and groups actually experience their health status. And so 1 of the ways that I like to define it is simply the way that the CDC and others [do]. These are the conditions and the environments where people are born, where they live, learn, play, work, and age. And so it's an entire social context that people find themselves in that really can impact and influence their health and well-being. Brielle Gregory Collins: Thank you so much for defining that. Now let's talk about some of the specific social determinants of health. So let's start with economic stability. What are some ways financial challenges can affect someone with cancer? Dr. Karen Winkfield: Money is key, right? I always tell folks that wealth equals health, and certainly, health equals wealth as well. I mean, we certainly feel like, man, we are on top of the world when we're feeling well. But unfortunately, in our society, money oftentimes is 1 of the things that helps us drive well-being and health in this country. So just the simple thing we saw with COVID-19 when people lost their job, for instance. Many people also lost their health insurance. In this country, health insurance is tied to economics, right? But economic stability goes beyond just insurance. It's about what is the budget? Do you have a family budget? There is a recent study that suggested that about 21% of individuals in the United States do not have an emergency fund, right? So that means that if, for instance, they were just living and they were working on a budget, if something happened - their car breaks down; there's a flood in their hometown - they have no financial resources that actually are available to them to help them overcome that emergency. And so economic stability is important. It's about where