Abstract
There is a significant increase in the number of people surviving cancer as a result of improved detection and better treatments. In the United States (US) alone, these numbers are estimated to reach 20 million by 2026 [Miller et al (2016) CA Cancer J Clin 66(4) 271–289)]; [Bluethmann et al (2016) Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 25(7) 1029–1036]. Living through cancer treatment represents a life-changing event, often including residual and long-term emotional, physical, psychological and spiritual sequelae. Survivorship programming must encompass the clinical management of medical issues, local support services for patients and their caregivers, protocols for communicating with community primary care providers (PCPs) and education for all clinicians in the survivorship continuum on the issues impacting survivors. This article will discuss a range of issues that should be addressed when developing a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary cancer survivorship care.
Highlights
The emphasis on developing survivorship programs is driven by the increasing numbers of cancer survivors
Free-standing or matrix cancer centres routinely have survivorship programs that are either: 1) decentralised where survivorship care happens in the primary oncology clinics; 2) centralised where all survivors come to one clinic coordinating survivorship care and 3) or a mixed model [5,6,7,8]
Urban, free-standing comprehensive cancer centre, most solid tumour survivors, breast, gynaecologic (GYN), head and neck (H&N), lung and some gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, are eventually transferred to the Survivorship Program for long-term follow-up care. This transitions patients from congested clinics whose primary focus is on newly diagnosed patients and those undergoing active treatment to a patient-centred care model focused on rehabilitation and wellness
Summary
The emphasis on developing survivorship programs is driven by the increasing numbers of cancer survivors. For long-term survivors (LTS), there are several organisations with some general guidelines outlining survivorship care: the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the American Cancer Society (ACS).
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