Long Term Care for Cancer Survivors
Cancer as a chronic disease among others is becoming a reality. With increased survival rates, quality of life during and after treatment is getting more attention. Health systems need to prepare not only to treat more patients during longer periods of time, but also to treat in a different way; with the arrival of precision medicine, the adverse effects have changed and are different than those brought about by traditional cytotoxic drugs.
Long term survivors in need of care for adverse effects from targeted therapies are becoming a growing patient population and large cancer centres are learning to diagnose and treat them. Guidelines on management are being developed. In the ongoing paradigm shift, patient advocacy groups are also actively taking part in improving their and their health care persons knowledge of (life with) side effects.
In this workshop, we will gather different stakeholders perspective on this development and together find answers to a set of critical questions: Where and by whom will patients be managed optimally? Do we need specialized departments for post cancer treatment? Cancer survivors declared cancer free may currently after a number of years no longer be followed up by oncologists or other specialized cancer experts. Will this need to change for patients on or after targeted cancer therapy treatment due to the new spectrum of side effects? What do these changes do to our general health care systems? Which guidelines do we need to develop and implement for monitoring?
Inspirational Speakers: Françoise Meunier, Director for Special Projects, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), Dr. Marianne Jarfelt, Drottning Silvia Children's Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden and Ms. Maria Weimer, Member of Swedish Parliament and Cancer Survivor.
Link to chapter in pre-conference report
Workshop Team: Birgitta Grundmark, Uppsala Monitoring Centre; Ulla Martinsson, Uppsala University Hospital together with Marianne Jarfelt, Sahlgrenska University Hospital