Primary care doctors don’t know long-term effects of chemo
Many primary care doctors don’t know the long-term side effects of the chemotherapy treatments that cancer survivors under their care may have been given, a new survey found.
On the other hand, most oncologists — though not all — are familiar with the side effects of four common treatments used to treat breast and colon cancer, according to the results of the survey being presented at the upcoming annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.
“While oncologists commonly identify the main late effects of four common cancer drugs, primary care providers did not,” study author Dr. Larissa Nekhlyudov said during a Wednesday news conference. “This is not surprising in that primary care providers have different training and exposure to chemotherapy drugs,” she noted.
