Week of June 18, 2007: End of Active Treatment

These are not really events as much as they are featured articles that may be of interest. These articles will be posted this week on the People Living With Cancer (PLWC) website. The articles featured this week:

Each week you can visit People Living With Cancer (http://www.plwc.org), ASCO’s patient information website, to read the latest PLWC Feature articles. PLWC Features are concise articles that provide practical, timely information for patients, family members, and friends.

Each PLWC Feature highlights a specific topic, such as treatment, coping strategies, and the basics of cancer care. Feature articles are medically reviewed, and a new article is posted every Monday. Choose from more than 140 titles listed on PLWC’s Features home page (http://www.plwc.org/features).

The two most recent Feature articles are:

Approaching the End of Active Treatment: http://www.plwc.org/endoftreatment
As people complete their cancer treatment, they may experience a range of emotions, from relief that treatment is over to apprehension about the future. In some ways, this transition is one of the least understood aspects of the cancer experience. PLWC talked with Lidia Schapira, MD, about coping with the end of active cancer treatment. Dr. Schapira is a medical oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and serves as the PLWC Associate Editor for psychosocial oncology.

ASCO Clinical Evidence Review on Long-Term Side Effects to the Heart and Lungs in Adult Survivors of Cancer: http://www.plwc.org/longtermsideeffects
More than 10 million cancer survivors are living in the United States, including 300,000 long-term survivors of adolescent and childhood cancers. Because more people are surviving cancer, there are more reports of long-term (late) effects from the cancer treatment. ASCO convened a panel of experts to review the scientific evidence surrounding the incidence of long-term side effects to the heart and lungs from chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and trastuzumab (Herceptin) treatment. PLWC discussed ASCO’s clinical evidence review with Patricia A. Ganz, MD. Dr. Ganz is a professor at UCLA Schools of Medicine and Public Health, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.