Dr. Ganz Discusses Palliative Care and Survivorship Care

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.