Onkológia 3/2020

Survivorship

Advances in cancer treatment have provided significant improvements in prolonging patient lives. Maintaning and improvement of long-term good quality of their life is of equal importance. At least 50% of patients in remission can develop long-term or late medical effects and psychosocial conditions as a complication of their therapy or cancer alone. Most of these conditions are avoidable. Therefore, the experts in the field of survivorship strongly advise that cancer patients should receive individualized care focusing on prevention of such sequelae prior to, during and after completion therapy. However, less than 30% of cancer survivors receive recommended care in developed countries. There is a tremendous need for better management of these potential complications as well as coordination of care between the oncology team and the primary and other specialists on the basis of expert-opinion recommendations and evidence-based medicine.

Keywords: cancer survivor, long-term effects, late effects, survivorship care plan, recommendations