PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Min Li
AU  - Juan Chen
AU  - Zhendong Chen
TI  - Health Management of Breast Cancer Survivors
AID  - 10.1007/s11805-009-0174-z
DP  - 2009 Jun 01
TA  - Clinical Oncology and Cancer Research
PG  - 174--178
VI  - 6
IP  - 3
4099  - http://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/6/3/174.short
4100  - http://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/6/3/174.full
SO  - Cancer Biol Med2009 Jun 01; 6
AB  - Breast cancer is defined as a chronic disease. Increasing amounts of attention have been paid to the health management of breast cancer survivors. An important issue is how to find the most appropriate method of follow-up in order to detect long-term complications of treatment, local recurrence and distant metastasis and to administer appropriate treatment to the survivors with recurrence in a timely fashion. Different oncology organizations have published guidelines for following up breast cancer survivors. However, there are few articles on this issue in China. Using the published follow-up guidelines, we analyzed their main limitations and discussed the content, follow-up interval and economic benefits of following up breast cancer survivors in an effort to provide suggestions to physicians. Based on a large number of clinical trials, we discussed the role of physical examination, mammography, liver echograph, chest radiography, bone scan and so on. We evaluated the effects of the above factors on detection of distant disease, survival time, improvement in quality of life and time to diagnosis of recurrence. The results of follow-up carried out by oncologists and primary health care physicians were compared. We also analyzed the correlation factors for the cost of such follow-up. It appears that follow-up for breast cancer survivors can be carried out effectively by trained primary health care physicians. If anything unusual arises, the patients should be transferred to specialists.