Improving Survivorship

On January 7, 2013, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) issued recommendations for improving survivorship care. An estimated 13 million Americans are cancer survivors and the recommendations were formulated to reduce the chance that these survivors would not receive necessary survivorship care following completion of cancer treatment.

Key practice recommendations include promoting patient-centered coordinated care via shared-care models, increasing the adoption of quality improvement programs, expanding research on long-term care and late effects of cancer treatment, strengthening healthcare provider education on survivorship care, and educating and empowering cancer survivors and their families so that they can be advocates of survivorship care for themselves as well as other cancer survivors. Perhaps the most important of these recommendations is expanding research on cancer survivorship. Research dollars tend to fund studies of cancer treatment so a shift in focus, or additional focus, is needed on survivors’ long-term care needs. We are just beginning to explore what optimal survivor care should encompass.