Inaugural symposium aims to foster ‘ongoing dialogue’ about cancer survivors’ unique needs
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An estimated 17 million cancer survivors live in the United States.
That number — increasing steadily due to treatment advances and earlier detection — is expected to exceed 22 million by the end of the decade.
“The question that keeps coming up is: How do we take care of all of these cancer survivors?” Anne Blaes, MD, associate professor in the division of hematology and oncology at University of Minnesota and director of cancer survivorship research for Masonic Cancer Center, told Healio. “We have more of them than ever and they all have very unique problems. This is a great problem to have, but it has to be the focus of an ongoing dialogue.”
That is the impetus behind Cancer Center Survivorship Research Forum: Innovations in Survivorship Care Delivery, a two-day virtual symposium scheduled for April 15-16.
The program will focus on how to deliver optimal survivorship care, as well as strategies to further the research needed on cancer survivors and how to best meet the unique needs of this growing population.
A core challenge in survivorship care is when and how to transition patients from oncology providers to the primary care setting. These decisions over the next several years will be influenced greatly by a projected oncologist shortage.
“These millions of cancer survivors can’t all stay in oncology. It’s really a matter of manpower,” said Blaes, a HemOnc Today Editorial Board member. “At the same time, we may have a complex patient who had chest radiation and heart disease and is at risk for a secondary cancer, and that person shouldn’t be transferred. There needs to be a risk-stratified approach.”
The symposium program also will explore:
- management and monitoring of late and long-term treatment effects, such as cognitive changes and cardiotoxicity;
- promotion of healthy lifestyles;
- screening for and management of secondary malignancies;
- engaging cancer survivors in self-management;
- strategies to ensure sufficient coordination and building an “ecosystem of care” that includes chronic disease management, cardio-oncology, and rehabilitation and therapy;
- how technology can enhance survivorship care;
- the benefits of patient-reported outcomes and barriers to their use;
- disparities in survivorship care; and
- how survivorship care can be personalized to meet the needs of unique populations, such as older individuals, sexual minorities, those who live in rural regions, and those who survived childhood or young adult cancers.
“Many patients in my clinic are childhood or young adult cancer survivors who now have a new cancer,” Blaes said. “These patients may not be eligible for clinical trials, so treatment decisions can be very challenging.”
Other presentations will focus on how electronic medical records and databases can be used to shape research agendas, as well as funding opportunities.
The role of telehealth also will be explored.
“We planned this agenda before the COVID-19 pandemic, thinking we would conduct this symposium in person,” Blaes said. “Since then, we have had to rapidly implement survivorship care in a different way, so we will take the opportunity to talk about what we learned and what we need to do moving forward.”
The approximately 35 presenters will include Emily S. Tonorezos, MD, MPH, director of NCI’s Office of Cancer Survivorship; Deb Mayer, PhD, RN, OACN, FAAN, director of cancer survivorship at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and former interim director of NCI’s Office of Cancer Survivorship; Shelly Fuld Nasso, MPP, chief executive officer of National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship; and Susan Dentzer, senior policy fellow for Robert J. Margolis Center for Health Policy at Duke University.
Breakout sessions will allow attendees to meet and speak virtually with these and other leaders in the field.
The target audience includes all providers involved with cancer care, as well as primary care providers and researchers whose work focuses on cancer survivorship. Junior faculty are encouraged to attend.
University of Minnesota will host this year’s inaugural symposium. Blaes hopes it will continue to be held every other year, with a different cancer center hosting each time.
“One cancer center may strive to be a survivorship mecca, but there is tremendous utility in engaging different cancer centers,” she said. “It allows you to move the conference to different geographies, engaging practitioners who may not travel from one side of the country to another. In addition, many centers have different strengths and varied experiences serving unique populations, so this would create an opportunity for us to learn from many different strong programs.”
For more information about the symposium or to view the agenda, go to ccsrf.umn.edu.
Reference:
Miller KD, et al. CA: Cancer J Clin. 2019;doi:10.3322/caac.21565.
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