Online description of services provided in adult survivorship programs across U.S. accredited cancer centers

• Published in: Journal of cancer survivorship Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 79 - 83
• Main Authors: Anampa-Guzmán, Andrea, Contreras-Chavez, Pamela, Lustberg, Maryam B., Nekhlyudov, Larissa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-02-2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Accreditation; Adult; Cancer; Cancer Survivors; Children; Cigarette smoking; Drug addiction; Fertility; Genetic counseling; Genetic screening; Health Informatics; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metastases; Neoplasms - psychology; Neoplasms - therapy; Oncology; Primary Care Medicine; Public Health; Quality of Life Research; Survival; Survivors; Survivorship; United States; Websites; United States; United States > US; Cancer centers; Medical oncology; Internet; Health care delivery; Cancer survivorship
• ISSN: 1932-2259; 1932-2267
• DOI: 10.1007/s11764-023-01361-w

Purpose
The American College of Surgeons Standard 4.8 requires an institution to implement a survivorship program to become a Commission on Cancer (CoC)-accredited cancer center. The online information offered by these cancer centers can help educate patients and their caregivers about available services. We assessed the content of survivorship program websites of CoC-accredited cancer centers in the United States.
Methods
Of the 1245 CoC-accredited centers for adults, we sampled 325 institutions (26%) based proportionately on the 2019 new cancer cases by state. Website pages of the institutions' survivorship programs were assessed for information and services offered using the COC Standard 4.8. We included programs for adult survivors of adult- and childhood-onset cancers.
Results
54.5% of the cancer centers did not have a survivorship program website. Of the 189 included programs, most were aimed at adult survivors in general, rather than those with specific cancer types. On average, five essential CoC-recommended services were described, most commonly nutrition, care plans, and psychology services. The least mentioned services were genetic counseling, fertility, and smoking cessation. Most programs described services offered to patients who had completed treatment, while 7.4% of described services for those with metastatic disease.
Conclusion
More than half of CoC-accredited programs did have information about cancer survivorship programs on their websites and when included, had variable and limited description of services.
Implications for cancer survivors
Our study provides an overview of online cancer survivorship services and offers a methodology that may be used by cancer centers to review, expand, and improve the information described on their websites.