Cancer survivorship for primary care: Annotated bibliography

• Published in: Journal of cancer policy 2015-06, Vol.4, p.7-12
• Main Authors: Westfall, Matthew Y., Overholser, Linda, Zittleman, Linda, Westfall, John M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Annotated bibliography; Long-term cancer survivorship; Primary care
• ISSN: 2213-5383; 2213-5383
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jcpo.2015.03.001

•Cancer treatment is moving from acute cure to long-term survival management.•Survivorship requires collaboration between patient, oncologist and primary care.•Survivorship Care Plans are essential tools for improving cancer survivorship.•This annotated review provides a core understanding of cancer survivorship. Long-term cancer survivorship care is a relatively new and rapidly advancing field of research. Increasing cancer survivorship rates have created a huge population of long-term cancer survivors whose cancer-specific needs challenge healthcare infrastructure and highlight a significant deficit of knowledge and guidelines in transitional care from treatment to normalcy/prolonged survivorship. As the paradigm of cancer care has changed from a fixation on the curative to the maintenance on long-term overall quality of life, so to, has the delineation of responsibility between oncologists and primary care physicians (PCPs). As more patients enjoy long-term survival, PCPs play a more comprehensive role in cancer care following acute treatment. To this end, this annotated bibliography was written to provide PCPs and other readers with an up-to-date and robust base of knowledge on long-term cancer survivorship, including definitions and epidemiological information as well as specific considerations and recommendations on physical, psychosocial, sexual, and comorbidity needs of survivors. Additionally, significant information is included on survivorship care, specifically Survivorship Care Plans (SPCs) and their evolution, utilization by oncologists and PCPs, and current gaps, as well as an introduction to patient navigation programs. Given rapid advancements in cancer research, this bibliography is meant to serve as current baseline reference outlining the state of the science.