Breakout session 5: Survivorship

Recent studies have indicated that people living with cancer tend to access health services more than those with other long term conditions, due to the ongoing long term emotional, psychological and physical burden associated with cancer and its treatment. However, effective education, support, intervention, and management of this phase of their cancer journey, can result in significant improvements in the health and well being of cancer survivors.

In this breakout session delegates were asked to consider how cancer survivors can be better supported throughout their cancer journey and how programmes such as the National Cancer Survivorship Initiative are vital in the efforts to tackle cancer inequalities.

Speakers

• Ciarán Devane - Chief Executive, Macmillan Cancer Support
• Noëline Young - NCSI Assessment and Care Planning Support, Macmillan Cancer Support
• Stephen Hindle - Cancer Survivorship Programme Lead, Macmillan Cancer Support

View Ciarán Devane's and Noëline Young's presentation [PDF, 504kb] |

Challenges

• Currently, efforts to tackle cancer inequalities are more often focused on prevention and early diagnosis.
• Access to post-treatment care and support in the UK is limited and there is no standardised approach to delivery.
• How will assessment and care planning assist in identifying the needs of all cancer patients?
• How will assessment and care planning help to tackle inequalities? 

Conclusions

Top three ideas for reducing cancer inequalities:

• Health care professionals need more training around inequalities to ensure they are able to deal confidently with any challenges that might arise from the assessment and care planning process.
• Follow up should be replaced with a proper assessment and care planning process to enable clinician to look at ‘the big picture,’ including any potential inequalities.
• A more individualised approach to assessment and care planning for the ‘survivorship’ stage of the ‘cancer journey’ needs to be developed to meet each patient’s particular priorities. 

Breakout session six: Awareness and early detection

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