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Online description of services provided in adult survivorship programs across U.S. accredited cancer centers

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Abstract

Purpose

The American College of Surgeons Standard 4.8 requires an institution to implement a survivorship program to become a Commission on Cancer (CoC)-accredited cancer center. The online information offered by these cancer centers can help educate patients and their caregivers about available services. We assessed the content of survivorship program websites of CoC-accredited cancer centers in the United States.

Methods

Of the 1245 CoC-accredited centers for adults, we sampled 325 institutions (26%) based proportionately on the 2019 new cancer cases by state. Website pages of the institutions' survivorship programs were assessed for information and services offered using the COC Standard 4.8. We included programs for adult survivors of adult- and childhood-onset cancers.

Results

54.5% of the cancer centers did not have a survivorship program website. Of the 189 included programs, most were aimed at adult survivors in general, rather than those with specific cancer types. On average, five essential CoC-recommended services were described, most commonly nutrition, care plans, and psychology services. The least mentioned services were genetic counseling, fertility, and smoking cessation. Most programs described services offered to patients who had completed treatment, while 7.4% of described services for those with metastatic disease.

Conclusion

More than half of CoC-accredited programs did have information about cancer survivorship programs on their websites and when included, had variable and limited description of services.

Implications for cancer survivors

Our study provides an overview of online cancer survivorship services and offers a methodology that may be used by cancer centers to review, expand, and improve the information described on their websites.

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Data availability

Data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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Funding

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. San Fernando Medical SchoolFaculty of Medicine, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. Lima, Lima, Peru

    Andrea Anampa-Guzmán

  2. Department of Medicine, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, 665 Elm St, Buffalo, NY, 14203, USA

    Andrea Anampa-Guzmán

  3. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Pamela Contreras-Chavez

  4. Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, CT, USA

    Maryam B. Lustberg

  5. Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Larissa Nekhlyudov

  6. Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Larissa Nekhlyudov

Authors
  1. Andrea Anampa-Guzmán
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  2. Pamela Contreras-Chavez
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  3. Maryam B. Lustberg
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  4. Larissa Nekhlyudov
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Contributions

Conception or design of the work—AAG, LN, ML.

Data collection - AAG, PC.

Data analysis and interpretation - all authors.

Drafting the article - AAG, LN.

Critical revision of the article - AAG, LN, ML.

Final approval of the version to be published - all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea Anampa-Guzmán.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

Maryam B. Lustberg.

Honoraria: Novartis, BioTheranostics.

Consulting or Advisory Role: PledPharma, Disarm Therapeutics, Pfizer.

Other Relationship: Cynosure/Hologic.

Larissa Nekhlyudov.

Honoraria: UpToDate.

No other potential conflicts of interest were reported.

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Anampa-Guzmán, A., Contreras-Chavez, P., Lustberg, M.B. et al. Online description of services provided in adult survivorship programs across U.S. accredited cancer centers. J Cancer Surviv 18, 79–83 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-023-01361-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11764-023-01361-w

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