Still a long way to go in long-term follow-up care
“It is clear that the child cured of cancer must be followed for life, not so much because late recurrence of disease is feared as to permit detection of the delayed consequences of radio- and chemotherapy. Careful studies of these late effects must be conducted.”
Giulio J. D’Angio, University of Pennsylvania Professor Emeritus of Radiation Oncology
In their commentary to the Lancet Oncology in November 2018, PanCareFollowUp Coordinator Prof. Leontien Kremer and Data Centre leader Prof. Jeanette Falck-Winther describe how there is still a long way to go in long-term follow-up care for children surviving cancer.
We’ve known for more than 40 years that lifelong survivorship care is needed for most survivors, and many advances have been made through reducing treatment exposures, as well as better screening and prevention. However, there is still a lot of variation in the level of care survivors receive across Europe and internationally. Survivorship care is complex and there has been a lack of harmonised, evidence-based guidelines.
PanCareFollowUp is looking at delivering care according to recently developed guidelines using an innovative model for integrated care that empowers survivors and supports self-management, highlighted in the commentary. [1]
- Loonen JJ, Blijlevens NM, Prins J, et al. Cancer survivorship care: person centered care in a multidisciplinary shared care model. Int J Integr Care 2018; 18: 4.
