Cancer survivors need a long-range care plan, IOM says

The health risks of many cancer treatments make it important for primary care physicians to be included in the information loop.

By Susan J. Landers, amednews staff. Dec. 5, 2005.

Washington -- Starting a dialogue with patients' oncologists is one sure way for primary care physicians to deliver better care to cancer survivors. But reaching across specialties to coordinate care is not easy, a new Institute of Medicine report says.

To aid the discourse, the report, "From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition," recommends that each patient receive from their oncologist a "survivorship care plan" that summarizes information crucial to the patient's long-term care. The plan should include the diagnosis, treatment received and potential consequences of that treatment.

There are already 10 million cancer survivors in the nation, and that number likely will grow as the population ages and detection and treatment continues to improve. In the United States half of all men and one-third of all women will develop cancer.

All survivors will go on to receive care from a primary care physician who could benefit from explicit guidance from oncologists, according to the panel that drafted the report.

"There is currently no organized system to link oncology care to primary care," said Sheldon Greenfield, MD, chair of the panel that wrote the report and professor of medicine at the University of California, Irvine, College of Medicine. "Successful cancer care doesn't end when patients walk out the door after completion of their initial treatments."

Whether it's surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy or radiation therapy, cancer treatments can carry long-term health risks.

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