Our specialists can help ensure you live as full and healthy a life as possible after being treated for breast cancer. Our nurse practitioners who specialize in the disease will monitor you for signs that the disease has returned and also watch you carefully to help spot, prevent, and control any long-term or late effects of the disease or treatment.
During your follow-up visit with the nurse practitioner, he or she:
- reviews your recent medical history and does a physical exam
- does an assessment to look for recurrence (return) of cancer
- identifies and helps you manage any side effects
- makes screening referrals for other cancers when appropriate
- makes healthy-living recommendations related to nutrition, exercise, and quitting tobacco
- shapes a treatment summary and follow-up care plan for you
- sets up consultations with your Memorial Sloan Kettering doctors as needed
The nurse practitioner also draws up a treatment summary and survivorship care plan for you and shares it with your primary care doctor and other medical providers. Your doctors incorporate this information into your overall medical plan. The nurse practitioner updates this plan after each visit.
If you need less care over time, we may discuss the option of transitioning your follow-up care to your primary care physician. The timing for this depends on your particular cancer and treatment. But we’re always available if your doctors ever have a cancer-related question or if a new cancer-related problem arises.