Survivorship

In 2005, the Institute of Medicine published “From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition.” The report highlights the long-term medical and psychosocial consequences of cancer treatment and provides a foundation for survivorship programs today.

Thoracic surgeons remain involved with the long-term care of their cancer patients, usually in surveilling for recurrence. However, with an increasing survivor population, little is known on their other supportive needs.

Women diagnosed with breast cancer before age 45 face unique survivorship challenges, including early menopause, late effects of treatment, psychosocial distress, and sex and intimacy changes.

Poor implementation of survivorship care plans ultimately limits the ability to determine whether or not they work, according to Sarah A. Birken, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

Lillie Shockney presents the annual Survivorship Issue of JONS and commends the readership on their dedication to navigating patients to an empowered survivorship.

JONS talks with Editor-in-Chief Lillie D. Shockney, RN, BS, MAS, ONN-CG, to understand the purpose and contents of survivorship care plans and the role of oncology professionals in their creation and dissemination.

We are pleased to present a chapter from the recently published book Team-Based Oncology Care: The Pivotal Role of Oncology Navigation.

Development of guidelines should focus on reducing ambiguity, improving consistency, and leveraging technology to provide decision support for patients and providers.

Primary care providers (PCPs) are interested in receiving survivorship care plans (SCPs), but all too often they either do not receive them, don’t know that they did, or don’t have easy access to them.

Existing research provides minimal evidence that survivorship care plans improve quality of life in cancer survivors. This lack of evidence might be due to heterogeneity across SCPs and the low likelihood that SCP delivery alone will influence health outcomes down the line.