Impact of survivorship-based research on defining clinical care guidelines

Abstract

The growing number of individuals living five or more years from cancer diagnosis underscores the importance of providing guidance about potential late treatment effects to clinicians caring for long-term cancer survivors. Late treatment effects are commonly experienced by cancer survivors, increase in prevalence with aging, produce substantial morbidity, and predispose to early mortality. Findings from survivorship research permit providers to anticipate health risks among predisposed survivors and facilitate their access to interventions to prevent, detect, or rehabilitate cancer-related morbidity. This article reviews the impact that survivorship research has made in defining clinical care guidelines and the challenges that remain in developing and translating research findings into health screening recommendations that can optimize the quality and duration of survival after cancer.