By Rodrigo Martinez

No one should have to fight cancer and fight the system at the same time. 

What cancer is missing is a map. Yes, an actual map. Just as explorers once relied on maps to cross dangerous oceans and discover new worlds, patients today need a map to navigate the chaotic territory of cancer. 

When patients are diagnosed with cancer, they expect the hard part to be the disease. But most patients quickly discover there’s a second, silent battle: navigating a system that feels like being dropped into a storm in the middle of the ocean with no instruments whatsoever.

There’s no clear starting point, no one to guide you, no map to show where you are or what’s ahead. Instead there’s a blur of appointments, lab results, unfamiliar words, paperwork, and life-altering decisions, often delivered in a language you’re still learning. Utter chaos.

That lack of structure creates real harm. Without a shared plan, patients miss critical details, families burn out, and decisions get made with limited information and understanding instead of with clarity and confidence. 

Samira Daswani, the founder and CEO of Manta Cares, learned this the hard way. In the weeks after her diagnosis of breast cancer, her care was scattered across multiple portals, paper notes, and conversations she had to remember word-for-word. Her family, eager to help, ended up improvising roles: her mother oversaw nutrition, her brother kept morale up, her father traveled from India but had no access to her medical information. Everyone was doing their best, but no one had a shared plan. But they had no instruments, no system.

“Cancer,” Samira says, “is the ultimate loss of control over your life. Without a map, you’re constantly reacting instead of preparing for and making informed choices.” 

"Without a map, you’re constantly reacting instead of preparing for and making informed choices.” - Samira Daswani

In fact, Dr. Douglas Blayney, MD, former ASCO President drew a map for many of his patients over the years as a way to help them have some sense of control and better prepare for managing their cancer. 

Samira, out of necessity, created her own system. What started as a simple notebook to track medications, symptoms, questions for her oncologist, and treatment decisions became a structured system that brought order to the chaos. 

That personal tool eventually became the Manta Planner and today, thousands of patients across the country use this planner to prepare for, and guide their experience with cancer. Order and clarity from chaos. 

But a single tool wasn’t enough. What began as a paper planner soon evolved into a full digital platform, built by patients like Samira and refined with input from more than 100 oncologists, nurses, and medical professionals. At the center of the platform is a map, an interactive, clinically validated guide for managing cancer from A to Z. Like the nautical charts that once reshaped how the world explored oceans, this map gives patients and their families a way to orient themselves, anticipate what’s ahead, and learn from those who navigated before them. That is the power of design.

The Manta map supports over 300 critical decision points, from understanding diagnosis, to preparing or treatment, to managing side effects, to navigating financial and emotional strain. At each step, it integrates expert-reviewed  medical insights, real-world patient tips, and practical tools. Families can plan together, share updates with their care teams, and make decisions with clarity instead of guesswork.

Surviving cancer shouldn’t require a masterclass in system navigation. Patients deserve clarity in the chaos, a shared plan for everyone involved, and the confidence that they’re not navigating blind. Manta Cares brings structure to the entire cancer experience: appointments, treatments, logistics, even the small details that so often get lost. From A-to-Z.

Unlike the scattered notes and portals Samira and hundreds of thousands of patients face every day, in the Manta platform everything lives in one place. The platform is free, simple, and available on any device because access shouldn't depend on income, tech comfort, or who you know. 

Manta Cares is so much more than a tool, it’s the difference between wandering in the dark and charting a course forward. I invite you to learn more at mantacares.com and if you know someone with breast or lung cancer, please share this story with them. 

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Rodrigo Martinez is a creative executive with 20+ years of experience at the crossroads of design, innovation, hospitality, and health. His career started at BCG and IDEO. And for the last decade he has been Chief Marketing Officer of several companies.