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. 2021 Sep:154:316-328.
doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2021.06.004. Epub 2021 Jul 29.

European PanCareFollowUp Recommendations for surveillance of late effects of childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer

Rebecca J van Kalsbeek  1 , Helena J H van der Pal  2 , Leontien C M Kremer  3 , Edit Bardi  4 , Morven C Brown  5 , Rachel Effeney  6 , Jeanette F Winther  7 , Cecilia Follin  8 , Jaap den Hartogh  9 , Riccardo Haupt  10 , Lars Hjorth  11 , Tomas Kepak  12 , Katerina Kepakova  12 , Gill Levitt  13 , Jacqueline J Loonen  14 , Marlies Mangelschots  15 , Monica Muraca  10 , Marleen Renard  15 , Harun Sabic  16 , Carina U Schneider  16 , Anne Uyttebroeck  17 , Roderick Skinner  18 , Renée L Mulder  19
Affiliations

European PanCareFollowUp Recommendations for surveillance of late effects of childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer

Rebecca J van Kalsbeek et al. Eur J Cancer. 2021 Sep.

Abstract

Background: Long-term follow-up (LTFU) care for childhood, adolescent, and young adult (CAYA) cancer survivors is essential to preserve health and quality of life (QoL). Evidence-based guidelines are needed to inform optimal surveillance strategies, but many topics are yet to be addressed by the International Late Effects of Childhood Cancer Guideline Harmonization Group (IGHG). Therefore, the PanCareFollowUp Recommendations Working Group collaborated with stakeholders to develop European harmonised recommendations in anticipation of evidence-based IGHG guidelines.

Methods: The PanCareFollowUp Recommendations Working Group, consisting of 23 late effects specialists, researchers, and survivor representatives from nine countries, collaborated in the first Europe-wide effort to provide unified recommendations in anticipation of evidence-based guidelines. A pragmatic methodology was used to define recommendations for topics where no evidence-based IGHG recommendations exist. The objective was to describe the surveillance requirements for high-quality care while balancing the different infrastructures and resources across European health care systems. The process included two face-to-face meetings and an external consultation round involving 18 experts from 14 countries.

Results: Twenty-five harmonised recommendations for LTFU care were developed collaboratively and address topics requiring awareness only (n = 6), awareness, history and/or physical examination (n = 9), or additional surveillance tests (n = 10).

Conclusions: The PanCareFollowUp Recommendations, representing a unique agreement across European stakeholders, emphasise awareness among survivors and health care providers in addition to tailored clinical evaluation and/or surveillance tests. They include existing IGHG guidelines and additional recommendations developed by a pragmatic methodology and will be used in the Horizon 2020-funded PanCareFollowUp project to improve health and QoL of CAYA cancer survivors.

Keywords: Aftercare; Cancer survivors; Neoplasms; Patient participation; Practice guideline; Quality of life; Survivorship.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest statement The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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