Sylvester to Partner with Primary Care Clinics in Community Health Centers for Better Cancer Survivor Care
Article Summary
- Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center is using a $4 million grant for a study of an evidence-based survivorship care education program.
- Sylvester is collaborating with 14 Health Choice Network primary clinics for the study.
- Cancer survivorship care is particularly important, as the number of survivors is anticipated to increase by nearly 5 million by 2032.
Bringing life-enhancing cancer survivorship comprehensive care to South Florida families is the goal of a new federal grant to Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of UHealth—the University of Miami Health System.
The $4 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) will support a five-year study of an evidence-based survivorship care education program for primary care clinicians and comprehensive survivorship care for their patients.
“Sylvester is dedicated to improving the lives of survivors in the communities we serve,” said Frank Penedo, Ph.D., associate director for population sciences and director of cancer survivorship and supportive care at Sylvester, South Florida’s only NCI-designated cancer center, and principal investigator for the new study. “Addressing the complex needs of cancer survivors in primary care can be challenging for providers, as they do not have the necessary training or resources to provide comprehensive care. Knowledge gained from this grant can have a significant impact on how we establish survivorship care in the community, improve survivorship outcomes and advance health equity.”
The rapidly growing number of cancer survivors in the U.S. revealed a critical need to implement care coordination, prevention, surveillance and intervention services in the primary care setting, added Dr. Penedo, endowed chair in cancer survivorship and professor of psychology and medicine at the University of Miami.
“This will be the first large-scale study to assess the effectiveness of an integrated primary care survivorship training and care program in reducing morbidity, mortality and the overall burden of cancer in community health centers,” Dr. Penedo said.
Collaboration Benefits Cancer Survivors
Cancer survivors benefit from a collaborative partnership involving primary care clinicians, community oncologists and Sylvester specialists.
“Being able to address survivors’ physical, emotional and psychological issues at an early stage can improve long-term outcomes,” said Jessica MacIntyre, APRN, executive director of clinical operations at Sylvester and co-principal investigator. “We want to educate and support clinicians who see cancer patients after treatment.”
Many Miami-Dade cancer survivors face significant challenges, including accessing appropriate follow-up care, financial concerns, anxiety about the future and social isolation, according to Jocelyn Lawrence, M.D., chief medical officer of Jessie Trice Community Health System. Dr. Lawrence’s organization is one of 14 Health Choice Network federally qualified health centers in South Florida that provides primary care services to racially and ethnically diverse cancer survivors.
“This NCI grant to Sylvester and the Health Choice Network will help tremendously with the continuity of care for our cancer survivors,” said Dr. Lawrence, a co-principal investigator. “Many patients treated for cancer are not aware of the importance of ongoing screening or surveillance after treatment. Along with improving long-term outcomes, study participants may benefit from a higher quality of life.”
Dr. Lawrence also noted the importance of patient education.
“One patient who underwent successful surgery for lung cancer felt he could continue to smoke as a survivor,” she said. “Another patient mistakenly thought that her successful chemotherapy for breast cancer would protect her from cervical cancer.”
Developing Best Practices for Cancer Survivor Care
The NCI-funded study, “Implementation of a Comprehensive Survivorship Care Intervention Across FQHC-Based Primary Care Practices,” will focus on developing best practice guidelines, care coordination and management of physical, psychosocial and practical needs, as well as lifestyle behaviors and optimal surveillance for new primary cancers and recurrences.
The study team will recruit 100 primary care clinicians and 20 clinic and Health Choice Network leaders. They will receive training in the standard of care for cancer survivors. Then, 930 adult survivors will be invited to participate, with approximately half receiving a comprehensive intervention and half receiving the current standard of care.
“We will be looking to see if survivors have implemented care recommendations and lifestyle changes, and how well they have followed up on screening and surveillance recommendations,” said MacIntyre. “The aggregate data will be gathered and analyzed on the same medical records platform, for consistency in our findings.”
National Standards for Cancer Survivorship Care
Prior to leading the new study, Dr. Penedo and MacIntyre contributed to new national standards for cancer survivorship care developed by the NCI and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs under President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot initiative.
“We were selected as subject matter experts to advise on the most important indicators for high-quality survivorship care,” said Dr. Penedo.
The survivorship care standards are designed to help health systems and organizations assess survivorship care quality and align survivorship services.
Advances in early cancer detection and treatment have led to a rapid increase in the number of U.S. cancer survivors. The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 22.5 million survivors by 2032, up from 18 million.
“Our research at Sylvester provides strong evidence that unmet supportive care needs are associated with a lower quality of life, along with increased hospitalizations and other challenges,” said Dr. Penedo. “Addressing these unmet needs in the primary care setting is crucial to improve outcomes, particularly in racial and ethnic minority populations ,where the needs are greatest.”
Tags: cancer survivorship, Dr. Frank Penedo, Jessica MacIntyre, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center