Follow-Up Care for Esophageal Cancer

At Memorial Sloan Kettering, it’s one of our priorities to continue to check in with you once your active treatments are over. We want to be sure you’re healing well and managing any side effects of your treatment. We also need to watch for signs that your cancer is back. We offer complete follow-up care for people who’ve been treated here as part of our Survivorship Initiative.

You’ll be cared for by a nurse-practitioner (NP) who specializes in working with survivors of esophageal cancer. He or she will monitor you for signs that your cancer is back. Your NP will also find, prevent, and control any side effects that arise long after your treatment is over.

A visit with the NP includes the following:

reviewing your recent medical history and doing a physical examination
detecting whether the cancer has returned
identifying and managing the effects of cancer and its treatment
giving screening referrals for other cancers
recommending action on nutrition, exercise, and quitting smoking
summarizing treatment and giving follow-up care
consulting with your MSK doctor as needed

Your NP will work closely with your MSK treatment team. He or she will provide you with a treatment summary. It will have information about all the treatments you’ve had, and a care plan that you can share with your primary care doctor and any other medical care providers. Your doctors can then use this information in your overall medical plan.

After each follow-up visit, your NP will update your other medical providers.

As your need for NP visits decreases, we may recommend that you shift your care to your primary care doctor or gastroenterologist. The timing depends on which type of esophageal cancer you had and what type of treatment you got.