General practitioner involvement in follow‐up of childhood cancer survivors: A systematic review

Abstract

Scarcity of literature necessitated a review rather than a meta-analysis. More research on the outcomes of GP-led care is necessary to confirm the model for follow-up of childhood cancer survivors in the long term. However, with the necessary elements in place, the model of GP-led follow-up, and shared care in particular, holds promise.

Primary Care Physicians’ Perspectives of Their Role in Cancer Care: A Systematic Review

“…31 Survivors of childhood cancers present an additional challenge, as PCPs encounter fewer cases and have limited paediatric oncology knowledge, 32 and there remains a dearth of evidence exploring the optimal model follow-up care for this population. 33 A clearer understanding of PCPs' preferences for involvement in cancer care is needed to explore the feasibility of a primary care based follow-up system. The significant amount of research that has already investigated PCPs' preferences represents an opportunity to make informed changes within health-care systems and potentially increase the quality of life and survival of cancer patients.…”

Impact of shared care program in follow‐up of childhood cancer survivors: An intervention study

“…A Dutch study showed high survivors’ (88%) and GPs’ (82%) satisfaction with such a system . This model of childhood cancer survivor FU shared care plan (CS‐FU‐SP) holds promise but needs to be prospectively compared with other models . In a first cohort of CCS, we studied the FU rate at baseline and verified our hypothesis that survivors were aware of the risk of late effects.…”

Development of a Primary Care-Based Clinic to Support Adults With a History of Childhood Cancer: The Tactic Clinic

“…Influencing perception of risk has been noted to be a factor that is associated with follow up knowledge of potential late effects in one study (Cherven et al, 2014). It contributes to a growing literature that reports on strategies that could help support primary care provider capacity to care for this population (Blaauwbroek et al, 2008(Blaauwbroek et al, , 2012Oeffinger et al, 2011), takes into account primary care provider preferences for receiving such support (Nathan et al, 2013) and answers the call for developing and evaluating models of care involving primary care specifically in shared care (Heirs et al, 2013;Oeffinger, 2008;Shad et al, 2012;Singer et al, 2013;Suh et al, 2014). Active participation by primary care in a multidisciplinary clinic approach has many potential benefits to patients but also to primary care providers who can increase their knowledge not only of survivorship care but of transition related issues for young adults, and these are directions for future research.…”