Robert E. Fisher, MD

A report from the Institute of Medicine in 2005¹ marked a watershed in the thinking about cancer patients and their long-term needs as survivors when it argued for oncology programs in the United States to address the unmet needs of cancer survivors at the community practice level. Cancer care in the United States has tended to focus on the more immediate aspects of the active treatment, limiting our long-term concerns for the patient’s well-being. Indeed, as a community oncologist in the early part of my career,² decades ago, I considered cancer patients “finished” with their cancer and back to “normal” soon after their last acute toxicity ended.² These days, our profession as well as patients and society as a whole have come to understand that the needs of cancer patients continue into well into survivorship, which can span years or even decades. These concerns should be addressed and accommodated through comprehensive, community-based survivorship programs.

*For a PDF of the full article, click on the link to the left of this introduction.

A report from the Institute of Medicine in 2005¹ marked a watershed in the thinking about cancer patients and their long-term needs as survivors when it argued for oncology programs in the United States to address the unmet needs of cancer survivors at the community practice level. Cancer care in the United States has tended to focus on the more immediate aspects of the active treatment, limiting our long-term concerns for the patient’s well-being. Indeed, as a community oncologist in the early part of my career,² decades ago, I considered cancer patients “finished” with their cancer and back to “normal” soon after their last acute toxicity ended.² These days, our profession as well as patients and society as a whole have come to understand that the needs of cancer patients continue into well into survivorship, which can span years or even decades. These concerns should be addressed and accommodated through comprehensive, community-based survivorship programs.

*For a PDF of the full article, click on the link to the left of this introduction.

A report from the Institute of Medicine in 2005¹ marked a watershed in the thinking about cancer patients and their long-term needs as survivors when it argued for oncology programs in the United States to address the unmet needs of cancer survivors at the community practice level. Cancer care in the United States has tended to focus on the more immediate aspects of the active treatment, limiting our long-term concerns for the patient’s well-being. Indeed, as a community oncologist in the early part of my career,² decades ago, I considered cancer patients “finished” with their cancer and back to “normal” soon after their last acute toxicity ended.² These days, our profession as well as patients and society as a whole have come to understand that the needs of cancer patients continue into well into survivorship, which can span years or even decades. These concerns should be addressed and accommodated through comprehensive, community-based survivorship programs.

*For a PDF of the full article, click on the link to the left of this introduction.