Prostate cancer survivor capacity to engage in survivorship self-management: a comparison of perceptions between oncology specialists, primary care, and survivors

Purpose: The rapidly increasing number of prostate cancer survivors in tandem with a forthcoming shortage of oncology specialists in our health system poses a barrier to ensuring that high-quality survivorship care is available to support this population. As such, there is a need to consider ways to optimize survivorship care, while taking health system constraints into account. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of survivorship self-management between oncology specialists, primary care providers (PCPs), and survivors themselves.

Methods: A single cross-sectional survey, relating to how prostate cancer survivorship care could be improved, was administered to each group.

Results: Two hundred forty-three participants (N = 206 survivors, N = 10 oncology specialists, N = 27 PCPs) completed the study survey. Most PCPs (90%) and oncology specialists (84%) perceived that an opportunity for prostate cancer survivors to have an expanded role in their care would be beneficial. Nearly half (49%) of survivors reported that it would be beneficial to have an expanded role in their survivorship care with only 11% indicating that it would not be beneficial at all.

Conclusions: Barriers to developing this model involve limited oncology specialist time to execute survivorship plans, limited communication between oncology specialists and PCPs, and a lack of primary care and survivor education targeted specifically to prostate cancer survivorship.