Cancer survivors and survivorship research: a reflection on today's successes and tomorrow's challenges

Abstract

As advances in cancer medicine turn this once uniformly fatal illness into a curable disease for growing numbers and a chronic illness for many, understanding and meeting the needs of long-term cancer survivors and their caregivers has become a major public health challenge, a challenge made more urgent by the aging of the population. This article reviews the profile of today's cancer survivors along with the demographic information on what this profile might look like in the future. Current directions in and the knowledge gained from the growing body of cancer survivorship research and the science of the long-term and late consequences to individuals, families, and society of people living longer with a cancer history are delineated.