Journal of Cancer Survivorship - Virtual Issue

Note from the Editor-in-Chief

As many of you know, in 2002/03 I was diagnosed with and treated for an anaplastic astrocytoma, first with a surgical resection of my brain, followed by brain irradiation and chemotherapy. After this whirlwind experience I had very little direction. Like thousands of others following cancer treatment, I pretty much was told to just resume my life.

Surveillance visits focused on my brain tumor with some concern for other problems, but most of my next steps were based on my experience in treating patients with chronic illness, research I had done, consultations I had conducted developing clinical programs in medical centers, and the invaluable support of my family. Little was known about living through a cancer diagnosis and treatment, and options for systematic, comprehensive follow-up other than tumor surveillance were few and far between. Much has improved over the past decade thanks to many pioneers in oncology, internal medicine, nursing, rehabilitation medicine, exercise physiology, physical therapy, health psychology, social work, nutrition, legal reform, occupational health, health services, and health policy research. The landscape of cancer survivorship has changed beyond recognition, due to the creativity and never ceasing commitment of thousands across the globe. We owe much to these pioneers.

Following my cancer experience I thought that in order for the field of cancer survivorship to flourish it needed mechanisms to disseminate evolving interdisciplinary knowledge that had the potential to advance the process of quality improvement in research and practice specific to cancer survivorship. Although there were many journals related to oncology, these top rated journals were publishing very few papers pertaining to patients who had completed cancer treatment. The journals were focused on clinical trials of chemotherapies and/or surgical procedures, as was appropriate. That is why we launched Journal of Cancer Survivorship: Research and Practice (Feuerstein 2007). I asked many of the pioneers referred to above to join us in this important mission and to a person each committed to the effort.

The journal is now celebrating its 10th anniversary and Springer suggested we create a “virtual issue” highlighting several important contributions from the journal’s history. There are many “objective” methods I could have used to select these papers. I used none. Rather, I selected what I thought were some of the most noteworthy given our mission as stated on the website. As you can anticipate, I think all the papers published in JCS were noteworthy. It is very easy for you to search through all issues and decide for yourself. The abstracts of all papers are provided on the journal’s website (this opens in a new tab).

Virtual Issue Part 1: Healthcare Services
The papers included here represent clinical and health services research designed to improve health, health care, function, health behaviors, or well-being. As time goes on, JCS will continue to disseminate quality papers that will inform the efforts of many on the front lines of this public health crisis and optimize cancer survivorship.

• The willingness of general practitioners to be involved in the follow-up of adult survivors of childhood cancer (OPEN ACCESS) (this opens in a new tab)
• Developing a new instrument to assess the impact of cancer in young adult survivors of childhood cancer (this opens in a new tab)
• Complementary and alternative medicine use among cancer survivors: a population-based study (this opens in a new tab)
• Adult cancer survivorship care: experiences from the LIVESTRONG centers of excellence network (this opens in a new tab)
• How confident are young adult cancer survivors in managing their survivorship care? A report from the LIVESTRONG™ Survivorship Center of Excellence Network (this opens in a new tab)
• Models of care for post-treatment follow-up of adult cancer survivors: a systematic review and quality appraisal of the evidence (this opens in a new tab)
• Mental health services utilization and expenditures associated with cancer survivorship in the United States (this opens in a new tab)
• Cancer survivors’ experiences of using survivorship care plans: a systematic review of qualitative studies (OPEN ACCESS) (this opens in a new tab)
• Identifying the unmet needs of breast cancer patients post-primary treatment: the Cancer Survivor Profile (CSPro) (this opens in a new tab)
• Comorbid condition care quality in cancer survivors: role of primary care and specialty providers and care coordination (this opens in a new tab)