Breast Cancer Rehabilitation and Survivorship: Cost, Quality, and Lessons Learned

Abstract

There are an estimated 11.1 million cancer survivors in the United States, and cancer is increasingly being seen as a manageable chronic disease. Unfortunately, cancer survivors may experience both physical and psychosocial long-term and late effects of cancer and its treatments that can have a profound effect on both health status and quality of life. Specialized cancer survivorship clinics have been started in many cancer centers in response to the needs of the growing number of survivors, but the overall costs and effectiveness associated with providing survivorship-focused care have yet to be evaluated. This paper explores the body of knowledge that contributed to the development of survivorship clinics and examines the potential benefits of these clinics along with a real-world description of a dedicated adult survivorship clinic.