Impact of cancer survivorship care plans (SCPs) on health outcomes and health care delivery: A systematic review.

Abstract

2 Background: In 2006, the Institute of Medicine recommended that patients at or near completion of active treatment be provided with a SCP (treatment summary, relevant health information, and follow-up care plan) to improve care delivery and outcomes in the post-treatment period. We systematically reviewed published research to determine if SCPs have a positive impact on health outcomes and healthcare delivery. Methods: Randomized and nonrandomized studies evaluating patient-reported outcomes, healthcare utilization, and disease outcomes after delivery of SCPs were identified by searching MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Library. Data were extracted by independent raters and summarized based on qualitative synthesis. Results: Eleven nonrandomized and 13 randomized studies met inclusion criteria. Variability was evident across studies in cancer diagnoses, timing of SCP delivery in relation to treatment completion, SCP delivery method and recipients, SCP content, SCP-related counseling, and outcomes assessed. Findings from nonrandomized studies yielded descriptive information only on outcomes such as satisfaction with care and reactions to SCPs. Among randomized studies, findings were near uniformly negative for the impact of SCPs on the most commonly assessed outcomes (physical, functional, and psychological well-being); findings were positive in single studies for other outcomes including amount of information received, satisfaction with care, and physician implementation of recommended survivorship care. Conclusions: Existing research provides minimal evidence that SCPs improve quality of life in cancer survivors. Possible explanations include heterogeneity in study designs and the low likelihood that SCP delivery alone would influence distal health outcomes. Findings are very limited but more positive for proximal outcomes (e.g., information received) and for care delivery, especially when SCPs are accompanied by counseling to prepare survivors for future clinical encounters. In light of current findings, future research should focus to a greater extent on evaluating ways to ensure SCP recommendations are subsequently implemented as part of ongoing care.