TY - JOUR T1 - Survivorship care in breast cancer JF - Canadian Family Physician JO - Can Fam Physician SP - e277 LP - e283 VL - 61 IS - 6 AU - Sally L. Smith AU - Sonja Murchison AU - Savitri Singh-Carlson AU - Cheryl Alexander AU - Elaine S. Wai Y1 - 2015/06/01 UR - http://www.cfp.ca/content/61/6/e277.abstract N2 - Objective To compare the perceptions of breast cancer survivors and primary care physicians (PCPs) about PCPs’ ability to deliver survivorship care in breast cancer.Design Mailed survey.Setting British Columbia.Participants A total of 1065 breast cancer survivors who had completed treatment of nonmetastatic breast cancer within the previous year, and 587 PCPs who had patients with nonmetastatic breast cancer discharged to their care within the preceding 18 months.Main outcome measures Breast cancer survivors’ and PCPs’ confidence ratings of PCPs’ ability to deliver the following aspects of care: screening for recurrence; managing osteoporosis, lymphedema, endocrine therapy, menopausal symptoms, and anxiety about or fear of recurrence; and providing nutrition and exercise counseling, sex and body image counseling, and family counseling. Response options for each question included low, adequate, or good. Responses were summarized as frequencies and compared using χ2 tests.Results Response rates for breast cancer survivors and PCPs were 47% and 59%, respectively. Responses were statistically different in all categories (P < .05). Both groups were most confident in the ability of PCPs to screen for recurrence, but breast cancer survivors were 10 times as likely to indicate low confidence (10% of breast cancer survivors vs 1% of PCPs) in this aspect of care. More breast cancer survivors (23%) expressed low confidence in PCPs’ ability to provide counseling about fear of recurrence compared with PCPs (3%). Aspects of care in which both breast cancer survivors and PCPs were most likely to express low confidence included sex and body image counseling (35% of breast cancer survivors vs 26% of PCPs) and family counseling (33% of breast cancer survivors vs 24% of PCPs). Primary care physicians (24%) described low confidence in their ability to manage lymphedema.Conclusion Breast cancer survivors and PCPs are reasonably confident in a PCP-based model of survivorship care. Primary care physicians are confident in their ability to manage physical effects related to breast cancer, with the exception of lymphedema. Low confidence ratings among both groups in psychosocial aspects of care suggest an area for improvement. ER -