Cancer treatments for hematologic malignancies can include radiation, chemotherapy, immunosuppression, stem cell transplant, and targeted biological therapies. These therapies can cause long-term side effects that may negatively affect quality of life. Many of these late effects are modifiable when a proactive systematic plan of prevention and surveillance is implemented. This plan is most effective when factors such as past treatments, chromosomal prognostic factors, comorbid health conditions, and lifestyle behaviors are considered.
A survivorship care plan specific for cancer survivors who have undergone a hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) would enhance the ability of clinicians to monitor for these late effects. The Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research, the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, and the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplant have recommended that a HSCT-specific survivorship care plan include 6-month, 12-month, and annual assessments of physical and psychosocial well-being including preventive screenings unique to the HSCT survivor.
This quality improvement study described the frequency of documentation of the recommended cancer survivorship guidelines by oncology clinicians in the medical records of adult HSCT survivors at 12 and 24 months post-transplant in one comprehensive cancer center. This retrospective chart review found that only three of the 29 recommended guidelines were documented as being completed in more than 50% of the charts at 12 and 24 months. Furthermore, the data indicated that the remaining indicators were documented in less than 50% of the charts at both 12 and 24 months. These findings were used to inform the oncology clinicians of the need for adherence to recommended guidelines and in the planning of a hematology and transplant survivorship clinic for individuals who have completed the acute phase of their cancer treatment.No embarg
