The ten million cancer survivors in the U.S. need a survivorship plan to guide their future health care says the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, reports the Wall St Journal.
When active treatment ends, these people's special needs may be just beginning, said the study, released Monday. Yet, the legacy of physical, psychological and social consequences has largely been ignored by doctors, researchers, even patient-advocacy groups, leaving survivors too often unaware of simmering health risks or struggling to manage them on their own, said the report by the Institute of Medicine.
"Successful cancer care doesn't end when patients walk out the door after completion of their initial treatments," said Sheldon Greenfield of the University of California, Irvine, who led the study for the institute, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences.
Yet, "you fall off a cliff when your treatment ends," said report co-author Ellen Stovall, president of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, who speaks from personal experience as a two-time survivor.
Posted by Jill Fallon at November 7, 2005 10:24 PM | Permalink