Cancer Survivorship Care: A Roadmap for Life After Treatment
Key Insights
Survivorship care should begin from day one of cancer diagnosis, focusing on whole-person health, recurrence screening, and managing long-term treatment side effects.
Survivorship Care Plans serve as personalized roadmaps detailing diagnosis, treatments received, potential late effects, and schedules for future monitoring and tests.
MSK and Roswell Park offer specialized survivorship programs that address physical issues like fatigue and lymphedema, sexual health, mental health, and overall wellness.
The end of active cancer treatment is often met with relief, but for many patients it marks the beginning of a new and uncertain chapter. Leading cancer centers are emphasizing that survivorship care—a structured, long-term approach to post-treatment health—is essential for navigating life after cancer.
“Survivorship is a phase of care that should really begin from day one,” says nurse practitioner Jessica DiVanno, who leads Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s (MSK) adult survivorship program. “It’s not just about screening for recurrence — it’s about whole-person care, promoting good health overall, and managing long-term side effects.”
What Survivorship Care Entails
Survivorship care differs from ongoing oncology treatment in both focus and expertise. While oncologists concentrate on treating the cancer itself, survivorship providers specialize in the unique challenges that emerge once active treatment concludes. “We have the clinical training to detect a recurrence, so patients can feel assured,” DiVanno explains. “But our approach is different. We help patients adjust to how their lives may have changed, and we’re really specialized in managing any long-term side effects of treatment.”
The transition to survivorship occurs when a patient’s risk of recurrence is very low and they have met specific guidelines for their cancer type. Notably, patients can be considered in survivorship even while continuing long-term medication.
Appointments during this phase address issues that may have been deprioritized during active treatment, including physical side effects such as lymphedema, fatigue, and sleep problems; sexual health; mental health and emotional adjustment; and overall wellness encompassing nutrition, exercise, and stress management.
The Survivorship Care Plan: A Personalized Roadmap
At Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Survivorship and Supportive Care Center provides patients with a Survivorship Care Plan—a document that serves as a guide for staying healthy in the years ahead. “We think of it as a road map,” says Tessa Faye Flores, MD, Roswell Park’s Medical Director of Cancer Survivorship and Screening. “When people are done with their treatment, I ask them to see us at least one time in the Survivorship and Supportive Care Center so we can create a plan for them.”
The plan includes specific details about the patient’s diagnosis, a comprehensive list of all treatments received—including surgery, radiation, and medications—along with their potential long-term side effects, results of any genetic testing, and recommendations for future tests and their frequency. It also provides a schedule for annual follow-up visits and identifies which outside physicians should receive the care information.
This documentation becomes particularly valuable when a patient’s medical care shifts from the oncology team back to a primary care provider. Dr. Flores offers a concrete example: “The chemotherapy drugs Adriamycin and cyclophosphamide can increase the risk of developing acute myeloid leukemia (search) (AML) later on. If a patient received those drugs, we would recommend that her primary care physician monitor her for AML. If she had fatigue and bruising, we’d want her doctor to add AML to the list of possible causes.” Some treatments can also have long-term effects on the heart and lungs, making ongoing cardiac and pulmonary function testing important.
Beyond Monitoring: Whole-Person Wellness
Both MSK and Roswell Park frame survivorship care as more than cancer follow-up—it aims to elevate patients to a higher level of wellness. Roswell Park’s program offers services addressing ongoing physical side effects such as neuropathy, pain, and lymphedema; lifestyle advice including nutrition and exercise programs; financial and legal assistance related to cancer diagnoses; wellness restoration through massage or acupuncture; and support for anxiety and depression. Survivors who have smoked may also be eligible for lung cancer screenings.
MSK’s survivorship providers frequently refer patients to Integrative Medicine for services like acupuncture, meditation, sleep therapy, and the About Herbs database—an internationally recognized resource providing information on the risks and benefits of herbs, vitamins, and supplements. MSK also maintains special programs for adult survivors of childhood cancers.
Voices of Survivorship
The lived experiences of cancer survivors illustrate the diverse paths through post-treatment life. Eddie Baynes, diagnosed with stage 2 prostate cancer (search) in 2024, worked with MSK’s sexual health experts before and after surgery. “Throughout my cancer treatment and afterward at MSK, I learned I could do things to improve my outcome,” he says. His preparation included taking Cialis and performing Kegel exercises to strengthen pelvic muscles even before his operation. Today, he reports that his erectile function has returned to approximately 80% of baseline and he has resumed running five miles several times a week. He has become a vocal advocate for prostate cancer screening, particularly in the Black community.
Sundas Hashmi, diagnosed with oligodendroglioma (search) at age 37 in 2020, takes vorasidenib (Voranigo) under the care of oncologist Ingo Mellinghoff, MD. She describes adapting to cognitive changes following brain surgery: “My cognition has slowly come back — maybe 80% of what it used to be — but I know I can’t go back to my life before surgery and must adjust to my new normal.” Her coping strategies include constant checklists, daily naps, and finding joy in family, nature, and birding in Central Park.
Nisha Falcigno, diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer (search) in 2014 and cancer-free since 2023, now volunteers weekly visiting MSK patients. “I try never to use tentative words,” she says. “Instead I say: ‘You will survive. You should plan that trip. You are gonna be living your life for many years to come.’” She adds, “I tell people if you’re lucky enough to survive cancer, take that gift and pay it forward.”
Accessing Survivorship Care
Roswell Park offers Survivorship Care at five locations, including its downtown Buffalo campus and sites in Jamestown, Williamsville, and Lockport. Appointments can be scheduled by calling 716-845-4800. MSK provides disease-specific survivorship clinics alongside its general Adult Survivorship Program, with information available at mskcc.org.
“Patients really do love our survivorship program,” DiVanno says. “It’s a place where they can feel heard and start to move forward with confidence.”