Search

Introduction: The Institute of Medicine currently recommends all cancer survivors be provided survivorship care plans (SCPs) to aid them in their transition from cancer patient to cancer survivor. To our knowledge, there are very few comprehensive cancer treatment centers that report having a system that insures all patients will receive SCPs. One of the chief obstacles in broadly providing care plans is logistical; not all breast cancer patients undergo the same treatment progression and thus it is difficult to identify a suitable time after which the provider should distribute SCPs. Though adjuvant treatment pathways differ between patients, nearly all breast cancer patients receive surgery and thus surgery clinics could provide an opportunity to identify the majority of patients who will eventually be cancer survivors. The purpose of this study is to assess the feasibility of providing SCPs to breast cancer survivors by enrolling them at the postoperative visit and tracking them prospectively throughout their treatment. Methods: 75 English-speaking women over the age of 18 with stage I-III breast cancer were enrolled at their postoperative appointment. The participants' treatment progress was tracked through the electronic medical record; the treatment information was abstracted from the records and used to create treatment summaries. Once treatment was completed, participants received the SCP during one of their scheduled follow-up appointments. Results: Accrual occurred during 42 clinic days between April 2011 and February 2012. During that time, there were 129 postoperative appointments for patients with a diagnosis of breast cancer. 54 did not meet the eligibility requirements; 46 were DCIS, three had metastatic cancer, and five did not speak English. Of the patients who met the eligibility requirements 100% agreed to participate. Characteristics are shown in Table 1. Only 39.4% of participants received both chemotherapy and radiation and 9.6% of our participants received their adjuvant therapy outside of Smilow Cancer Center. Conclusion: Women recently diagnosed with breast cancer are interested in receiving survivorship care plans after treatment, as demonstrated by 100% accrual rate of eligible patients approached in the postoperative visit. The postoperative visit in a surgical clinic may provide the starting point for tracking a patient through treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]