Even so, these measures are not enough, leaving patients frustrated and desperate. Some cancer victims cannot find the information they need to get proper treatment, while others live too far away from cancer treatment facilities to benefit.

In fact, the phrase "cancer refugees" has been coined to describe desperate patients who visit hospital after hospital searching for advice and care.
—"Bill to aid cancer fight," The Asahi Shimbun, May 8, 2006

It is critical to create a framework necessary to support patients by society as a whole and upgrade cancer treatment in order not to further increase the number of "cancer refugees" who, being unable to receive standard therapy, distrust medical care.
—Masahiro Nakano, "The Reporter's Eye: 10," Pharma Japan, October 3, 2005

We realize most people have moved on from the failed Clinton health-care plan, but maybe New York's Democratic Senate candidate could fly up from Washington to see if some of Canada's cancer refugees could be treated in Buffalo or Rome.
—"Asides: Canada Shows the Way," The Wall Street Journal, June 10, 1999