Survivorship care planning in skin cancer: An unbiased statistical approach to identifying patterns of care-plan use

Nearly 1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer, and as a result, survivors of skin cancer compose one of the largest groups of cancer survivors. Survivorship care plans (SCPs) are an important tool for improving patient outcomes and provide critical information to both survivors and health care professionals. Recent efforts have been made to expand SCP utilization; however, which patients currently receive SCPs is poorly understood.

This study used 596 individuals with a diagnosis of melanoma (n = 391) or nonmelanoma skin cancer (n = 205) who had used an Internet-based SCP tool from May 2010 to December 2016 to model the patient and provider characteristics that determine SCP utilization.

Survivors were predominantly white (95.3%) and female (56.5%). Survivors who received a treatment summary were more likely to also receive an SCP. University and nonuniversity cancer centers used SCPs at a higher rate than other care settings. Survivors whose care was managed by a team rather than just an individual physician were also more likely to receive an SCP. Survivors older than 70 years at diagnosis were almost twice as likely to receive a plan as survivors who were diagnosed at a younger age.

With a convenience sample of skin cancer survivors, it is possible to model factors that predict the receipt of SCPs. Important variables include the diagnosis age, treatment setting, physician type, and treatment-summary utilization. A closer examination of these variables identified several disparities in care-plan use and, therefore, opportunities to improve the distribution of SCPs. Further validation in additional cohorts of survivors is necessary to confirm these conclusions. Cancer 2018;124:183-91. © 2017 American Cancer Society.