ASCO Core Curriculum for Cancer Survivorship Education

The number of individuals who will be diagnosed with cancer and experience personal cures (ie, dying from some other cause and not cancer) or live for extended periods after cancer treatment is increasing exponentially. By 2025, there will be nearly 20 million survivors, approximately two thirds over the age of 60. The ASCO Survivorship Committee, in partnership with ASCO Professional Committee, has developed this core curriculum and competencies for health care providers, training programs, and policymaking organizations. Adapted from Institute of Medicine recommendations for survivorship care, the curriculum and competencies include surveillance for recurrence and second malignancies; long-term and late effects; health promotion and prevention; psychosocial well-being; and special populations including adolescent and young adult survivors, older adult cancer survivors, and the caregivers of cancer survivors. Finally, an area the importance of which cannot be emphasized enough is communication and care coordination. It is our belief that doctors and other allied health professionals require special expertise tomanagethe exponentially expanding evidence-based and best practice recommendations to provide care for cancer survivors.