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ASTRO launches template to help radiation oncologists guide cancer survivors through ongoing care

Press releases may be edited for formatting or style | November 24, 2015
Fairfax, Va., November 23, 2015 – A new template published by the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) standardizes and streamlines the creation of patient-focused plans for long-term cancer survivor care following radiation therapy (RT). As the number of cancer patients and survivors in the U. S. continues to grow – the American Cancer Society predicts a 37 percent increase in the number of cancer patients surviving five years or longer over the next decade – so does the need for greater attention to long-term survivorship care.

The template and related research papers, "Development of a Standard Survivorship Care Plan for Radiation Oncologists" and "U.S. Radiation Oncology Practice Patterns for Post-Treatment Survivor Care," are published in Practical Radiation Oncology (PRO), the official clinical journal of ASTRO. The template was developed to coordinate post-treatment care for cancer survivors among the various contributors to their care, including primary care providers (PCPs) and oncology specialists (radiation, medical and surgical), as well as patients themselves.

"Factors such as earlier detection of cancer, increasingly effective treatment options, and an aging population lead to a growing number of cancer survivors and, ultimately, a need to educate and empower these individuals for their ongoing care," said ASTRO chair Bruce D. Minsky, MD, FASTRO. "The ASTRO template is designed to foster better coordination of post-treatment care for cancer survivors, including greater clarity in the dialogue between radiation oncologists and PCPs for issues such as less common side effects that may appear well after treatment is complete."

The framework also enables practices to meet new accreditation requirements set by the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC). In response to a 2006 recommendation from the Institutes of Medicine that cancer patients be provided with a survivorship care plan (SCP) following treatment, CoC issued a mandate that cancer programs provide SCPs for all curative cancer patients by 2019 to maintain accreditation.

The new CoC requirement may necessitate changes for the majority of radiation oncology programs, according to data from a March 2014 survey of ASTRO members, which include nearly all practicing radiation oncologists in the U.S. The survey found that only 40 percent and 19 percent of respondents used SCPs for curative and palliative patients, respectively. Primary barriers to implementation included cost and the lack of a standardized, comprehensive SCP framework suited to patients who received RT. Nearly 80 percent of the RT providers that reported using SCPs relied on a framework developed internally within their practice, indicating that different patients may receive different types of information depending on where they receive treatment.

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