Aims: Many survivors are disengaged from essential, lifelong follow-up care following treatment for cancer as a child. Innovative models of follow-up care are therefore required to manage the increasing number of childhood cancer survivors (CCS). CCSs’ preferences, and GPs’ confidence in delivering survivorship care is underexplored.
Methods: Stage 1: CCS and parents (of survivors <16 years) were surveyed on their survivorship care preferences. Stage 2: Survivors’ nominated their GP for an interview regarding their role and confidence in providing childhood cancer survivorship care. Analysis was performed using SPSS22.0 and NVivo11.
Results: Stage 1: 610 surveys were returned (403 CCS, mean age: 26.8years; and 207 parents, child mean age: 12.4years). Sixty-five percent of CCS reported having a regular GP. GP-led follow-up care was the least preferred choice, with significantly fewer parents nominated GPs as their first choice (2% vs 12% survivors χ2=32.183, p<0.001). Parents were less willing to visit a GP for their child’s survivorship care (39% vs 65% of survivors, χ2=24.097, p<0.001). However, 22% of survivors reported not attending a long term follow-up clinic as they felt their GP was best placed to meet their needs (vs 5% of parents, χ2=20.457, p<0.001). Stage 2: Only 16% of GPs (n=50) reported receiving a treatment summary or Survivorship Care Plan for their patient. Fifty-percent of GPs were confident in providing survivorship care to pediatric survivors, however 92% had unmet information needs particularly in understanding CCS’ unique health needs.
Conclusions: GPs are willing to provide survivorship care to paediatric survivors, and are well placed to provide holistic care. Increased training and liaison between tertiary services and primary care may improve the confidence of survivors and GPs, therefore enhancing the quality of GP-led care.