Debra A. Patt, MD, MPH

In 2012, the United States had an estimated 12 million cancer survivors.¹ In November 2005 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a call to action on cancer survivorship for health care professionals to recognize challenges, treat conditions, and support our patients more comprehensively after their diagnosis with cancer.² This support begins with educating patients about their disease and treatment, their follow-up plan, and potential complications. It involves an assessment for potential complications of disease and treatment, and intervention when warranted. Survivorship programs have emerged throughout the country, but the composition of the programs and operational process by which they are implemented are widely varied. There is some divergence about what defines a cancer survivor, though most current programs treat individuals who have undergone early stage disease treatment through palliation. The site of service where survivorship programs are delivered varies from hospital to center to clinic. The structure of the delivery mechanism can be as a consultation, assuming individuals will have usually 1 survivorship visit, or as longitudinal, setting the precedent that patients will follow up at some regular interval for continued survivorship care. The most striking variation in survivorship programs is the depth and breadth of services that they provide to their patients.

*Click on the links to the left for PDFs of the full article and related article and Commentary.  

In 2012, the United States had an estimated 12 million cancer survivors.¹ In November 2005 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a call to action on cancer survivorship for health care professionals to recognize challenges, treat conditions, and support our patients more comprehensively after their diagnosis with cancer.² This support begins with educating patients about their disease and treatment, their follow-up plan, and potential complications. It involves an assessment for potential complications of disease and treatment, and intervention when warranted. Survivorship programs have emerged throughout the country, but the composition of the programs and operational process by which they are implemented are widely varied. There is some divergence about what defines a cancer survivor, though most current programs treat individuals who have undergone early stage disease treatment through palliation. The site of service where survivorship programs are delivered varies from hospital to center to clinic. The structure of the delivery mechanism can be as a consultation, assuming individuals will have usually 1 survivorship visit, or as longitudinal, setting the precedent that patients will follow up at some regular interval for continued survivorship care. The most striking variation in survivorship programs is the depth and breadth of services that they provide to their patients.

*Click on the links to the left for PDFs of the full article and related article and Commentary.  

In 2012, the United States had an estimated 12 million cancer survivors.¹ In November 2005 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a call to action on cancer survivorship for health care professionals to recognize challenges, treat conditions, and support our patients more comprehensively after their diagnosis with cancer.² This support begins with educating patients about their disease and treatment, their follow-up plan, and potential complications. It involves an assessment for potential complications of disease and treatment, and intervention when warranted. Survivorship programs have emerged throughout the country, but the composition of the programs and operational process by which they are implemented are widely varied. There is some divergence about what defines a cancer survivor, though most current programs treat individuals who have undergone early stage disease treatment through palliation. The site of service where survivorship programs are delivered varies from hospital to center to clinic. The structure of the delivery mechanism can be as a consultation, assuming individuals will have usually 1 survivorship visit, or as longitudinal, setting the precedent that patients will follow up at some regular interval for continued survivorship care. The most striking variation in survivorship programs is the depth and breadth of services that they provide to their patients.

*Click on the links to the left for PDFs of the full article and related article and Commentary.  

In this issue of Community Oncology, we have a focus on cancer survivorship. While oncologists are knowledgeable of the need for survivorship programs to enhance quality of care along the patient care continuum, the processes of implementation of survivorship programs outside of larger organizational systems of care delivery has been limited. For those community oncologists outside of larger care delivery systems, there is a need for tools and processes to facilitate survivorship care planning. We discuss some of those issues in this month’s issue. Jennifer Klemp has done tremendous work with survivorship care training to prepare practitioners to deliver focused survivorship care. She does this by using educational videos and tools to provide education around the needs of the cancer survivor. In addition, there is an article out of my group in Texas Oncology discussing the practical steps of implementing a survivorship care program in a community practice. We discuss key steps in implementation and highlight several free and publicly available tools to assist oncologists in the process of providing survivorship care.
 
*Click on the links to the left for PDFs of the full Commentary and related articles.  

In this issue of Community Oncology, we have a focus on cancer survivorship. While oncologists are knowledgeable of the need for survivorship programs to enhance quality of care along the patient care continuum, the processes of implementation of survivorship programs outside of larger organizational systems of care delivery has been limited. For those community oncologists outside of larger care delivery systems, there is a need for tools and processes to facilitate survivorship care planning. We discuss some of those issues in this month’s issue. Jennifer Klemp has done tremendous work with survivorship care training to prepare practitioners to deliver focused survivorship care. She does this by using educational videos and tools to provide education around the needs of the cancer survivor. In addition, there is an article out of my group in Texas Oncology discussing the practical steps of implementing a survivorship care program in a community practice. We discuss key steps in implementation and highlight several free and publicly available tools to assist oncologists in the process of providing survivorship care.
 
*Click on the links to the left for PDFs of the full Commentary and related articles.  

In this issue of Community Oncology, we have a focus on cancer survivorship. While oncologists are knowledgeable of the need for survivorship programs to enhance quality of care along the patient care continuum, the processes of implementation of survivorship programs outside of larger organizational systems of care delivery has been limited. For those community oncologists outside of larger care delivery systems, there is a need for tools and processes to facilitate survivorship care planning. We discuss some of those issues in this month’s issue. Jennifer Klemp has done tremendous work with survivorship care training to prepare practitioners to deliver focused survivorship care. She does this by using educational videos and tools to provide education around the needs of the cancer survivor. In addition, there is an article out of my group in Texas Oncology discussing the practical steps of implementing a survivorship care program in a community practice. We discuss key steps in implementation and highlight several free and publicly available tools to assist oncologists in the process of providing survivorship care.
 
*Click on the links to the left for PDFs of the full Commentary and related articles.  

As a community oncologist, I fully embrace the opportunity to cure cancer, but I find the greatest services I provide are to palliate and enhance survivorship. We live in a tremendously fortunate time of scientific discovery. The weapons we have in our armamentarium of cancer killers grow in magnitude and specificity daily. Learning then to continue to balance each patient’s battle with their quality of life is practicing the art of medicine. Although most patients hope that their cancer will be cured, the daily reality of a community oncologist lies in the subtle art of helping patients to manage life with cancer and to strike the right balance between cancer control and quality of life. This management challenge really lies in the individual variability of each patient and in being able to choose the agent that fits the patient, not just the disease.

*For a PDF of the full article, click on the link to the left of this introduction.

As a community oncologist, I fully embrace the opportunity to cure cancer, but I find the greatest services I provide are to palliate and enhance survivorship. We live in a tremendously fortunate time of scientific discovery. The weapons we have in our armamentarium of cancer killers grow in magnitude and specificity daily. Learning then to continue to balance each patient’s battle with their quality of life is practicing the art of medicine. Although most patients hope that their cancer will be cured, the daily reality of a community oncologist lies in the subtle art of helping patients to manage life with cancer and to strike the right balance between cancer control and quality of life. This management challenge really lies in the individual variability of each patient and in being able to choose the agent that fits the patient, not just the disease.

*For a PDF of the full article, click on the link to the left of this introduction.

As a community oncologist, I fully embrace the opportunity to cure cancer, but I find the greatest services I provide are to palliate and enhance survivorship. We live in a tremendously fortunate time of scientific discovery. The weapons we have in our armamentarium of cancer killers grow in magnitude and specificity daily. Learning then to continue to balance each patient’s battle with their quality of life is practicing the art of medicine. Although most patients hope that their cancer will be cured, the daily reality of a community oncologist lies in the subtle art of helping patients to manage life with cancer and to strike the right balance between cancer control and quality of life. This management challenge really lies in the individual variability of each patient and in being able to choose the agent that fits the patient, not just the disease.

*For a PDF of the full article, click on the link to the left of this introduction.