Due to early detection, innovative research and advances in treatment, the number of cancer survivors is growing rapidly. According to the National Cancer Institute there are more 12 million cancer survivors in the United States, and this number is expected to rise to 18 million by 2020.
Yet, with this boom in survivor population come challenges.
Today, many cancer survivors are leaving their oncologists without the support they need to address the physical and emotional concerns that arise post-treatment. In order to help survivors transition smoothly, evidence-based survivorship programs are needed.
Jean Kutner, MD, MSPH was recently appointed to lead efforts to begin a survivorship research program at the CU Cancer Center.
A year ago, investigators at the University of Colorado Cancer Center were charged with developing a survivorship research program that could potentially provide these needed evidence-based programs. Led by Jean Kutner, MD, MSPH, professor of medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, a small working group of survivorship researchers met over the course of six months to define the vision for a future program.
Out of the meetings came a 5-year goal of seating the survivorship program as a full member of the research programs in the CU Cancer Center’s National Cancer Institute core grant renewal. Currently, the center has six research programs: Cancer Cell Biology; Cancer Prevention and Control; Developmental Therapeutics; Hormone Related Malignancies; Lung, Head and Neck Cancer; and Molecular Oncology.
If the group’s goal succeeds, the blossoming survivorship program would be the first such program at an NCI-designated cancer center.
“The University of Colorado Cancer Center is situated to lead the field of cancer survivorship nationally,” says Kutner, who is also an investigator at the CU Cancer Center. “We have great synergy among our members and across institutions, and I believe developing the first survivorship research program will put us on the map.”
In November, the group hosted the center’s first survivorship retreat which gathered more than 55 nurses, researchers, physicians and psychologists involved in survivorship research and/or programs. Broken into groups based on sub-interests such as late effects, care planning, and caregiver support, attendees worked together to identify potential collaborations and opportunities for future research projects.
“There’s a lot of excitement around developing this program and our investigators are realizing there is a lot already going on at our center,” Kutner says. “Now we need to capture and build on this interest and identify our strengths and potential resources.”
Building on the retreat’s momentum, Kutner enlisted CU Cancer Center Investigators Sonia Okuyama, MD and Michael Galbraith, RN, PhD to facilitate and grow a Cancer Survivorship Interest Group. The group plans to be hub for the discussion of research and clinical approaches to survivorship care, and to collaborate with other survivorship researchers on grant proposals.
Above all, the cancer survivorship program hopes to translate research into meaningful programs that pinpoint and address survivors’ needs, Okuyama says. “Even if insurance will not yet cover a service because of its nature or novelty, we hope that by integrating it into a research project it will still be available to our patients.”
“There is so much potential in this particular area of cancer care that the possibilities are endless,” Okuyama says, “and as with everything that we do at the University of Colorado Cancer Center, the ultimate goal and priority is to offer the best care to our patients and their loved ones.”
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For further information or to join the Cancer Survivorship Interest Group please contact Sonia Okuyama, MD at Sonia.Okuyamasasaki@ucdenver.edu or Michael Galbraith, RN, PhD at Michael.Galbraith@ucdenver.edu.
