Cancer Survivorship Issues in Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancers — ASN Events

Cancer Survivorship Issues in Patients with Gastrointestinal Cancers (#111)

Patricia A Ganz 1
  1. UCLA Jonsson Comprehensve Cancer Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Gastrointestinal cancers originate in diverse organ sites, each of which may present specific or unique challenges for cancer survivors (e.g., esophagus vs. rectum).  However, there are a number of common survivorship outcomes associated with most of these cancers and they relate to changes from abdominal surgery affecting alimentation and gastrointestinal function, pain from surgery and radiation, long term effects from chemotherapy such as neuropathy or cardiac dysfunction, as well as fatigue, insomnia, sexual dysfunction, and psychological distress.  The patients who are diagnosed with gastrointestinal cancers are often older adults who may have concomitant comorbid conditions, and the interaction of cancer treatment late effects with chronic health problems is important to consider. 

This presentation will review the most common long term and late effects from the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers, how to approach management of cancer survivors with these diagnoses, and an examination of the need for additional site specific research among these patients. Survivorship care planning , approaches to surveillance, health promotion and cancer prevention will be featured.