FPs, Oncologists Give Same Care for Breast Cancer Follow-Up

Women with breast cancer have the same health outcomes when they receive follow-up care from their family physicians as when they receive that care from a clinical oncologist.

That's the conclusion of a study, "Randomized Trial of Long-Term Follow-Up for Early-Stage Breast Cancer: A Comparison of Family Physician versus Specialist Care," published in the Feb. 21 Journal of Clinical Oncology. Eva Grunfeld, M.D., senior scientist and associate professor in the oncology and family medicine divisions at Ottawa Health Research Institute, is the lead author.

The study reviewed health outcomes -- including recurrence of illness, emotional health, cognitive dysfunction, neuropathic pain, bone health and other symptoms associated with breast cancer treatment -- for 968 patients with early-stage breast cancer who had completed adjuvant treatment and were disease-free after a median follow-up of 3.5 years.

The researchers found no differences between patients receiving follow-up care from family physicians and those receiving follow-up care from cancer center specialists. In fact, their work "shows conclusively that the health outcomes for women after primary treatment of breast cancer are the same if they are followed by their family physicians or cancer center specialists," wrote James Khatcheressian, M.D., assistant professor of oncology, and Thomas Smith, M.D., chairman of the division of hematology and oncology at the Virginia Commonwealth University College of Medicine, Richmond, Va., in an editorial that accompanied the research. "There really is no other conclusion that can be drawn."