What do social media-savvy cancer survivors tell us about the completeness of survivorship care plans?

Abstract

10063 Background: The Commission on Cancer (CoC) standard 3.3 became effective in 1/2015 requiring the delivery of a survivorship care plan (SCP) at the completion of curative treatment. Both the CoC and ASCO have recommended minimum requirements for SCPs, which should include both a treatment summary and follow up care plan. Many cancer patients use social media (SM) as a way to obtain support and information. We have shown previously that the majority of SM savvy cancer survivors (88.2%) do not receive SCPs ( J Clin Oncol 35, 2017 suppl 5S; abstr 104). We sought to determine the contents of the SCPs received. Methods: An IRB-approved survey was conducted via the online tool SurveyMonkey from 3/21/2016 to 4/2/2016. Patients were invited to participate via SM outlets reaching cancer-related communities including Twitter chats, Facebook groups, blogs, and targeted emails. Results: A total of 312 patients responded. 63% (194) had completed curative treatment (excluding endocrine therapy). Of these 11.8% (23) reported receiving an SCP at the end of treatment. Of 22 patients who responded, 9/22 (40.9%) found the SCP helpful, 11/22 (50.0%) somewhat helpful, and 2/22 (9.1%) not helpful. The table below shows the components of those SCPs received. Conclusions: Not only did a small percentage of patients receive SCPs but also no patient received a complete SCP per the CoC and ASCO recommendations. Particularly deficient was a description of late/long-term effects of treatment—only 36% received such information. Challenges exist in the delivery of complete SCPs. [Table: see text]