Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

The complexity of cancer survivorship: a case for personalized medicine. Report of the 2014 Grandangolo conference

  • Review
  • Published:
Journal of Medicine and the Person

Abstract

This article reviews the Grandangolo conference on cancer survivorship and highlights the major findings. These include the improvement in survivorship, and the emergence of survivorship related syndromes, such as new neoplasms, cardiomyopathy, neutorpathy fatigue and memory loss. Emotional disorders may include the Lazarus’ Syndrome and the post-traumatic stress disorder. An open question is whether we should have specialists of survivorship or primary care physicians or oncologists could fulfill this role.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Balducci L’ Aapro M (2014) Complicate and complex: helping the older patient with cancer to exit the labyrinth. J Geriatr Oncol 5:116–118

  2. Vissers PA, Thong MS, Power F et al (2013) The impact of comorbidity on health related quality of life among cancer survivors: analysis of data from the PROFILE registry. J Cancer Surv 7:602–613

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Siegel R, De santis C, Virgo K et al (2012) Cancer treatment and survivorship statistics 2012. CA Cancer J Clin 62:220–241

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Min L, Wenger N, Walling AM et al (2013) When comorbidity, aging, and complexity of primary care meet: development and validation of the geriatric complexity of care index. J Am Geriatr Soc 61:542–550

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Scott IA (2008) Chronic disease management: a primer for physician. Intern Med J 38:427–437

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Campbell LK, Scaduto M, Sharp W et al (2007) A meta-analysis of the neuro-cognitive sequelae of treatment of childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia. Pediatr Blood Cancer 49:65–73

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Richardson WS, Doster LM (2014) Multimorbidity and comorbidity need to be placed in the context of a framework of risk, responsiveness and vulnerability. J Clin Epidemiol 67:244–246

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Mills KT, Bellows CF, Hoffman AE et al (2013) Diabetes mellitus and colorectal cancer prognosis: a meta-analysis. Dis Colon Rectum 56:1304–1319

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Yerrabothals S, Shaaban H, Capo G et al (2014) The impact of diabetes mellitus on breast cancer outcomes: a single center retrospective study. Pathol Oncol Res 20:209–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Peeters BJ, Bazelier MT, Vestergaard P et al (2013) Use of metformin and survival of diabetic women with breast cancer. Curr Drug Saf. 8:357–363

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Lash TL, Mor W, Wieland D et al (2007) Methodology, design and analytic techniques to address measurement of comorbid diseases. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Clin Sci. 62:281–285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Chen RC, Rojce TJ, Extermann M et al (2012) Impact of age and comorbidity on treatment and outcome of elderly cancer patients. Semin Radiat Oncol 22:265–271

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Saad A, Mahindra A, Zhang MJ et al (2014) Hematopoietic cell transplant comorbidity index is predictive of survival after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in multiple myeloma. Biol Blood Bone Marrow Transpl 20:402–408

    Google Scholar 

  14. Yung KC, Piccirillo JF (2008) The incidence and impact of comorbidity diagnosed after the onset of head and neck cancer. Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 134:1045–1049

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Huang X, Roenthal MB (2014) Transforming specialty practice: the patient-centered medical neighborhood. N Engl J Med 370:1376–1379

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Balducci L, Goetz-Parten D, Steinmann MA (2013) Polypharmacy and the management of older cancer patients. Ann Oncol 24(Suppl 7):36–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Jagsi R, Pottow JA, Griffith KA et al (2014) Long term financial burden of breast cancer. Experiences of a diverse cohort of survivors identified through population based registries. J Clin Oncol (in press)

  18. Eisemberg JM (1989) Clinical economics. A guide to economical analysis of medical practice. JAMA 262:2879–2886

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Denlinger CS, Carlson RW, Are M et al (2014) Survivorship: introduction and definition. Clinical practice guidelines in oncology. J Natl Compr Cancer Netw 12:34–45

    Google Scholar 

  20. Mullan F (1985) Seasons of survival: reflections of a physician with cancer. N Engl J Med 313:270–273

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Khan NF, Rose PW, Evans J (2012) Defining cancer survivorship: a more transparent approach is needed. J Cancer Surv 6:33–36

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Tralongo P, Annunziata MA, Santoro A et al (2013) Beyond semantics: the need to better categorize patients with cancer. J Clin Oncol 31:2637–2638

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Surbone A, Annunziata MA, Santoro A (2013) Cancer patients and survivors: changing words or changing culture? Ann Oncol 24:2468–2471

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Miller K, Abraham JH, Rhodes L et al (2013) Use of the word “cure” in oncology. J Oncol Pract 9:136–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Silva SA, Charon R, Wyer PC (2011) The marriage of evidence and narrative: scientific nurturance within clinical practice. J Eval Clin Pract 17:585–593

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Kreuter MW, Buskirk TD, Holmes K et al (2008) What makes cancer survivors stories work? An empirical study among African American women. J Cancer Surv 2:33–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Jones RP, Stättner S, Sutton P et al (2014) Controversies in oncosurgical management of liver-limited stage IV colorectal cancer. Surg Oncol (in press)

  28. Balducci L, Fossa SD (2013) Rehabilitation of older cancer patients. Acta Oncol 52:233–238

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Denlinger CS, Lacchetti C, Dworkin RH et al (2014) Survivorship pain version 1 2014. J Natl Compr Cancer Netw 12:488–500

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Pachman DR, Barton DL, Swetz KM et al (2012) Troublesome symptoms in cancer survivors: fatigue, insomnia, neuropathy and pain. J Clin Oncol 30:3687–3696

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Karo AE, Jävelä LS, Arola M et al (2013) Cardiovascular mortality of long term survivors of early-onset cancer: a population based study. Int J Cancer 134:664–673

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Bober SL, Varela VS (2012) Sexuality in adult cancer survivors: challenges and intervention. J Clin Oncol 30:3712–3719

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Sanoff HK, Deal AM, Krishnamurthy J et al (2014) Effects of cytotoxic chemotherapy on markers of molecular aging in patients with breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 106 (in press)

  34. Boffetta P, Kaldor JM (1994) Secondary malignancies following cancer chemotherapy. Acta Oncol 33:591–598

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Palm A, Johansson KA (2007) A review of the impact of proton and photon external beam radiotherapy treatment modalities on the dose distribution in field and out of field; implications for long term morbidity of cancer survivors. Acta Oncol 46:462–473

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Lee A (1978) The Lazarus syndrome: caring for patients returning from the dead. RN 41:52–64

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Godfarb S, Mulhall J, Nelson C et al (2013) Sexual and reproductive health in cancer survivors. Semin Oncol 40:736–744

    Google Scholar 

  38. Ford JS, Chou JF, Sklar CA (2013) Attendance at a survivorship clinic: impact of knowledge and psychosocial adjustment. J Cancer Surv 7:535–543

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Bruce A, Sheilds L, Molzhan A et al (2014) Stories of liminality: living with life-threatening illnesses. J Holist Nurs 32:35–43

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Varela VS, Ng A, Mauch P et al (2013) Post-traumatic stress disorder in survivors of Hodgkin’s lymphoma: prevalence of PTSD and partial PTSD compared with sibling control. Psychooncology 22:434–440

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Temel J, Greer JA, Muzikansky A et al (2010) Early palliative care for patients with metastatic non small cell lung cancer. N Engl J Med 363:733–742

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lodovico Balducci.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Santoro, A., Balducci, L. The complexity of cancer survivorship: a case for personalized medicine. Report of the 2014 Grandangolo conference. J Med Pers 12, 37–43 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12682-014-0182-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12682-014-0182-5

Keywords

Navigation