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Tom Purcell, MD, MBA, chief medical officer at Fred Hutch, discusses what the future of cancer care may hold in terms of monitoring recurrence and promoting health, as well as how Fred Hutch's streamlined cancer survivorship model helps support patients. This is the last podcast episode of the six-part Survivorship series.
Key takeaways:
* Fred Hutch is revamping its cancer survivorship model, creating a disease-specific survivorship program by embedding specialized survivorship groups directly within each disease division rather than treating survivorship as a separate discipline.
* Dedicated providers will oversee the long-term care of patients who are no longer in active cancer treatment.
* The Survivorship Program focuses on improving overall quality of life by addressing the personal and medical aspects of life after a cancer diagnosis.
* This approach combines personalized care plans for managing long-term side effects as well as advanced surveillance methods like circulating tumor DNA testing.
* The program coordinates direct referrals for broader lifestyle and wellness issues, providing patients with access to mental health care, sexual health support, and integrative therapies like acupuncture.
* Purcell also highlights the importance of modifiable risk factors, including maintaining targeted exercise routines and managing genetic and environmental risks.
Find out about Fred Hutch’s survivorship offerings, learn more about survivorship issues from the American Cancer Society and explore the National Cancer Institute’s Survivorship Resources.
Listen to the audio interview
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Tune in for more episodes of Bench to Bedside and Beyond. And if you’re interested in being a guest, please reach out to dmapes@fredhutch.org or brochman@fredhutch.org.
Bonnie Rochman is a senior editor and writer at Fred Hutch Cancer Center. A former health and parenting writer for Time, she has written a popular science book about genetics, "The Gene Machine: How Genetic Technologies Are Changing the Way We Have Kids—and the Kids We Have." Reach her at brochman@fredhutch.org.
Are you interested in reprinting or republishing this story? Be our guest! We want to help connect people with the information they need. We just ask that you link back to the original article, preserve the author’s byline and refrain from making edits that alter the original context. Questions? Email us at communications@fredhutch.org
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