With more than 13 million cancer survivors in the United States today and the number of survivors expected to reach 18 million by 2022, there is an urgent need to characterize and address the health concerns of survivors.
In an effort to ensure that cancer survivors receive high-quality risk assessment and prevention services, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) released a position statement published online on January 7 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Developed through the work of ASCO’s Cancer Survivorship Committee, the paper reported on a comprehensive agenda designed to guide the oncology community in achieving high-quality cancer survivorship care.
The statement spells out the agenda’s key initiatives, including:
- The development of recommendations to enhance and standardize long-term follow-up care of cancer survivors
- The evaluation of models of survivorship care and methods to optimize the transition of patients between oncology and primary care providers
- The expansion of educational programs for both healthcare professionals and patients
- Leveraging innovative clinical research methods, such as the collection of self-reported data from study participants
- An assessment of the federally funded research portfolio and the identification of gaps not addressed in current studies
- Advocating for legislation to ensure access to survivorship care and funding of survivorship research
Members of ASCO’s Cancer Survivorship Committee include Mary McCabe, Director of Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s Survivorship Initiative, and Kevin C. Oeffinger, Director of Memorial Sloan-Kettering’s Adult Long-Term Follow-Up Program. Ms. McCabe was the paper’s first author.
