Introduction to supportive care after breast cancer: challenges and opportunities
Breast cancer is the most common non-cutaneous malignancy among women worldwide and a leading cause of cancer-related death. In 2022, breast cancer was responsible for 670,000 deaths globally and was reported as the most common cancer in women in 157 of 185 countries (1). Breast cancer survivors face complex and varied complications as they move forward from their cancer. Survivorship trajectories and long-term patient quality of life can be impacted by various treatment-related side effects, including physical effects such as alopecia, radiation dermatitis and lymphedema, psychological distress, cognitive impairment, fertility issues, and impaired social and work reintegration (2-4). Additionally, breast cancer survivors continue to face general health needs, including chronic pre-existing or ensuring conditions that must also be addressed (5). As such, a broad, holistic, and expert understanding of the breadth of survivorship is necessary to provide effective, high-quality care (6,7).
While disease-specific clinical guidelines are available and provide a valuable starting point, extensive translational efforts are required for integration to routine care. An improved understanding of current practice patterns among oncologists and providers is needed to help inform the development of new and innovative models of care and best practices regarding clinical workflow to ease the complexity of survivorship care delivery over long periods of time and across large patient populations. There remains a significant gap between our understanding of survivorship and supportive care and the reality of the care that we provide. This collection aims to assist the reader with coming to a comprehensive, empathetic, and up-to-date understanding of the key issues and new developments in breast cancer survivorship care, including new challenges and opportunities.
This focused journal series provides a comprehensive and updated overview of the current state of and future directions for breast cancer survivorship research and care. The series features reviews, reports, and perspectives from leading experts in the field of breast cancer, as well as survivors themselves. This series aims to cover new developments, barriers, and insights into supportive and palliative care for survivors of breast cancer. It spans symptom management, advocacy, policy, collaboration between healthcare providers, and patient communication. It is our aim to help readers understand the complex and constantly changing landscape of breast cancer survivorship care, as well as the current critical gap in the translation of guidelines to practice.
Acknowledgments
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Footnote
Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Annals of Palliative Medicine for the series “Supportive Care After Breast Cancer: Challenges and Opportunities”. The article did not undergo external peer review.
Funding: None.
Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://apm.amegroups.com/article/view/10.21037/apm-25-78/coif). The series “Supportive Care After Breast Cancer: Challenges and Opportunities” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. C.B.S.II serves as the co-Editor-in-Chief of Annals of Palliative Medicine from April 2014 to April 2027. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.
Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
References
- World Health Organization (WHO). Breast cancer [Internet]. World Health Organization (WHO). 2024. Available online: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/breast-cancer#:~:text=Key%20facts
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