Survivorship

Fertility and early menopause after cancer can pose challenging emotional and medical issues for patients and their clinicians. Survivors who become infertile because of their cancer treatment are at an increased risk for emotional distress and are often affected by unresolved grief and depression, according to Ann H. Partridge, MD, MPH, Medical Oncologist, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston.

Two oncologists from Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia have added their weight to the growing call for less intensive follow-up of cancer survivors whenever appropriate.

A revised survivorship care plan template addresses obstacles that have limited the use of survivorship plans in clinical practice, suggested an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) expert panel headed by Deborah K. Mayer, PhD, MSN, RN, Professor of Nursing and Director of Survivorship Care, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

The high cost of cancer care follows patients well into survivorship, as annual medical costs and losses in productivity exceed those of people without cancer by 50% to 100%, a study for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed (Ekwueme DU, et al. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2014;63:505-510).

Hollywood, FL—Cancer survivorship guidelines have been expanded to include the management of neuropathic pain and cancer-associated cognitive dysfunction, said speakers at the 2014 National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) meeting.

Cancer centers are ramping up their efforts to create survivorship care plans (SCPs) for all of their patients. However, according to a new survey conducted in 2013, they still have far to go before January 1, 2015, when the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) accreditation requirement of creating SCPs for all patients comes into effect (Birken SA, et al. J Cancer Educ. 2014 April 6. Epub ahead of print)

Survival is not cheap. In fact, according to the results of a new study, cancer survivors have ongoing annual medical expenditures averaging $17,000 per patient in the first year after diagnosis, or $6400 per patient at least 1 year postdiagnosis (Guy GP Jr, et al. J Clin Oncol. 2013;31:3749-3757).

Washington, DC—Real-life experience translated into a research interest for Fedricker D. Barber, RN, MSN, of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX. At the 38th Annual Congress of the Oncology Nursing Society, Ms Barber presented a poster about the relationships between adult cancer survivors’ and caregivers’ social support, self-efficacy for physical activity, and quality-of-life (QOL) issues.