(Dallas—March 12, 2022, 8:11 a.m.)– A survey of Canadian patients with cancer found that cancer follow-up led by primary care providers is safe and effective compared to traditional oncologist-led care, according to research presented at the Society of Surgical Oncology 2022 International Conference on Surgical Care.
Megan Delisle, MD, MPH from the University of Ottawa, sought to describe differences in experiences with cancer follow-up among cancer survivors based on physician specialty and survivorship care plans. Survivorship care plans (SCP) provide follow-up recommendations to strengthen PCP-led follow-up.
Dr. Delisle and her team used data from the Experiences of Cancers Patients in Transition Study led by the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer who distributed 40,790 surveys across 10 Canadian provinces and 13,258 (33.3%) were completed and total of 8,911 were included in the analysis.
Follow-up was led by oncologists alone (3,761, 42.2%), PCPs alone (2,006, 22.5%), both PCP and oncologists (2,751, 30.9%) and no one (393, 4.4%). SCPs were provided to 3,408 patients (38.2%).
She assessed the association between primary care physician and oncologist-led follow-up, survivor care plans and rated overall experiences with follow-up care as good or very good versus fair, poor or very poor.
Satisfaction with follow-up care was highest when respondents could identify a healthcare provider who was in charge of their follow-up cancer care and lowest when no one was in charge. Differences in satisfaction between primary care physician and oncologist-led follow-up cancer care were identified but minimal. On multivariable analysis, significant predictors of lower satisfaction