부산대학교 도서관

There are many challenges associated with ensuring quality care for cancer survivors. Cancer patients often require treatment by multiple specialists (surgeons, radiation oncologists, medical oncologists) due to the use of multimodal therapies. After treatment has ended, cancer patients may be at risk for serious long-term and late effects of their disease and treatment. Unfortunately, the oncology care system often fails to provide education and guidance to patients at the end of active cancer treatment, in contrast to the more standardized communication at the time of diagnosis and initial treatment planning. Delivering high-quality, coordinated care during the posttreatment phase is critical to ensure the best possible patient outcomes. One of the proposed first steps in accomplishing this is the widespread implementation of cancer treatment summaries and survivorship care planning, a key recommendation of the 2006 Institute of Medicine report, From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition. This has been embraced by a number of leading organizations, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the Commission on Cancer. Survivorship care has also become an international priority, with organizations such as the U.K. National Cancer Survivorship Initiative and Organization of European Cancer Institutes championing the importance of survivorship care. This chapter provides an overview of the development and use of treatment summaries and survivorship care planning and briefly reviews research on care plans and the health policy impact of survivorship care plans as they relate to quality improvement activities that are underway.