Cancer survivorship: facing forward

In the last three decades, the number of cancer survivors in the United States has tripled and is growing by 2% each year. In 2004, there were an estimated 10.7 million cancer survivors (representing 3.5% of the United States population) with a concomitant effect on public health. The growing and heterogeneous population of cancer survivors provides important opportunities for clinical and epidemiologic research into cancer biology, long-term treatment effects, prevention, and interventional research. In this article, the authors briefly review the history of the efforts that served to coalesce efforts to champion survivorship research, identify future challenges, and provide a perspective on future recommendations.