Patricia Ganz, MD, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses how to better integrate survivorship plans for patients with cancer.

Ganz says patients are hungry for information on survivorship care and usually start thinking about how they will recover after the first few treatments cycles. A survivorship care plan typically covers health promotion, disease prevention and surveillance, among other things. Once the patient has this information, they begin to feel more empowered, Ganz says.

Ganz says it is important to include the patient’s primary care doctor in the survivorship plan because the oncology division is not going to have the capacity to follow every patient forever. In order to make the system work better, a transition point needs to be established once the patient has completed treatment, Ganz says.

The most important part of the care planning process is to engage and communicate with the patient, Ganz says.

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Dr. Ganz on Survivorship Care Plans for Patients with Cancer

Patricia Ganz, MD, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses palliative care and survivorship care.

Ganz says when a physician anticipates that a patient will be a long-term survivor, physicians and their team must be aware of all side effects of cancer treatment, even after the treatment ends.

For example, fertility must be taken into consideration before starting cancer treatment while symptoms such as fatigue, pain and psycho-social distress must be taken into consideration even after treatment ends, Ganz says.

Ganz says by incorporating palliative care along the cancer treatment continuum into the post-cancer treatment phase is very important and a central portion of survivorship care.

Patricia Ganz, MD, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, discusses palliative care and survivorship care

Patricia Ganz, MD

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Dr. Ganz on Survivorship Care Plans for Patients with Cancer

Dr. Ganz Discusses Palliative Care and Survivorship Care