Primary Care Doctors Should Be Responsible for Post-Cancer Screening

People who have survived cancer know about the importance of preventive health screening. They know that the ancer could come back at any time. They also know that other medical problems might crop up and that it's easiest to treat disease when it can be idenitifed early and nipped in the bud.

However, the process of getting preventive screening after treatment for cancer is not as streamlined as you might think. The cancer patient relies on the doctor's recommendations for getting future screening done. As time passes and the cancer patient is doing well, the need to see the oncologist is drastically reduced. The patient is much more likely to see a primary care doctor who may not be so quick to recommend screening.

There is an identified need among cancer survivors to learn about when and how to get proper screening for return of the cancer as well as the development of new disease. This need can be met through a commitment by primary care physicians to educate their patients about the timing and need for proper screening.

Learn more about this issue here.

Question of the Day: Whose responsibility is it to make sure that cancer survivors are getting proper screening after the disease has been treated?

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