The oncology industry is continuing to study cancer survivorship and understand its role in patient care, according to a Dec. 3 Cancer Network report.
Andrew Evens, DO, deputy director for Clinical Services at Rutgers Cancer Institute, system director of medical oncology and the oncology lead at West Orange, N.J.-based RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group, spoke to Cancer Network about survivorship at the 2024 Annual Oncology Clinical Practice and Research Summit.
"You can look at it through a couple different lenses," Dr. Evens said. "One is that we often think of patients as being lost in transition." That transition can occur with age when a patient moves from seeing a pediatric to an adult oncologist. It can also occur in the decades after a patient's cancer is cured, he added.
"The good news is there is somewhat of an increased effort to study this and to understand it," Dr. Evens said. "[For] many cancer survivors, there can be what’s called post-acute or late effects."
These effects can look like an increased risk for cardiovascular diseases such as checkpoint myocarditis, atherosclerosis or infection related to cancer therapies.
Steven Artandi, MD, PhD, director of the Stanford (Calif.) Cancer Institute, spoke to Becker's about the future of survivorship care in September.
"It can't fall entirely on the oncologists, because they are dealing with many new cases and active cases," he said. "It depends on the cancer, the circumstances of patients, and the risk of recurrence to determine the extent to which the oncologist manages that survivor versus the entire health system and the primary care physician."