The state of survivorship care in radiation oncology: Results from a nationally distributed survey

Abstract

ROs play an active role within the multidisciplinary team in the cancer-related follow-up care of survivors. Investigation of barriers to the provision of survivorship care and optimization of service delivery should be pursued further. The development of high-quality, easily accessible educational programming is needed so that ROs can participate more effectively in the care of cancer survivors. Cancer 2018;124:2653-60. © 2018 American Cancer Society.

Meeting the needs of long‐term survivors: A testament to success in the care of patients with cancer

“…Issues such as financial toxicity, the psychological impact of cancer, and how to support healthy behaviors are only just beginning to be studied. To better prepare our graduating residents to take on this task of providing best‐practice survivorship care, we agree with Frick et al that there is a need to create Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education‐mandated educational guidelines that focus on long‐term toxicity management and the promotion of healthy behaviors for our patients. The SCP can be a tool with which to initiate that discussion, and provide a framework that can strengthen our support for the cancer survivor in adopting healthy behaviors, being aware of potential red‐flag symptoms, and participate as a member of the health care team.…”

“…According to the data presented in the accompanying article by Frick et al, only 18% (95% confidence interval, 10%‐29%) of radiation oncologists are providing detailed SCPs to their patients and only 24% (95% confidence interval, 15%‐35%) provide SCPs as part of standard communication with a patient's primary care provider. Although some study limitations exist regarding whether the survey comprehensively represented all radiation oncologists and whether the survey adequately measured SCPs developed jointly with other specialists, the findings by Frick et al are in keeping with previous reports …”

“…So why are we failing to meet this need for our long‐term cancer survivors? Although not fully addressed in the associated article, the burden of time and staffing to produce SCPs when they are not reimbursed, difficulties in coordinating one SCP across several oncologists, a lack of experience educating patients and peers regarding healthy behaviors and radiation toxicity, and unclear evidence in support of the extra work of the SCP arise as some of the reasons for the lack of adoption of SCPs in radiation oncology …”

“…The study by Frick et al highlights that survivorship care is inadequately taught in radiation oncology training programs (a state that we share with medical oncology) . Frick et al found that only approximately 33% of survey respondents reported that they received an appropriate amount of survivorship care training from their respective residency curricula . Moreover, when radiation oncologists were asked if they had the training and resources necessary to care for cancer survivors, approximately 45% believed that their training was only “moderately” adequate .…”

“…6 Moreover, when radiation oncologists were asked if they had the training and resources necessary to care for cancer survivors, approximately 45% believed that their training was only "moderately" adequate. 6 It is interesting to note that a small study evaluating the usefulness of a survivorship care workshop for medical oncology fellows and radiation oncology residents found that a 1-hour workshop each month for 6 months was able to significantly improve the confidence in, knowledge of, and use of SCPs. Participants rated the cross-disciplinary team approach as the most useful aspect of the workshop.…”