Overview of Survivorship Research

With advances in cancer treatment and control, more and more patients are surviving this disease and living longer. Yet the psychosocial burden exacted by cancer is far-reaching, and impacts patients throughout the process of detection, treatment and survivorship. Opportunities are manifold for enhancing the research base on survivorship issues, including physiologic, psychological and neurological consequences of cancer; shared decision-making about treatment; screening and other preventive behaviors among family members of cancer patients; and the impact of lifestyle factors on quality of life among survivors.

CRN behavioral scientists and clinician researchers are collaborating on a proposal (under review) to study long-term survivors of colorectal cancer to assess the inter-relationship between aspects of their initial care and subsequent physical, functional and psychological outcomes. Other work is described in this section.