Implementing high-quality cancer survivorship care in primary care: future directions for policy and research

Nearly 20 million people in the United States are living with and beyond a cancer diagnosis, many of whom survive for decades after treatment. As this population continues to grow and age, primary care plays an increasingly important role in managing long-term and late effects of treatment. However, efforts to improve survivorship care delivery in primary care have only recently gained attention. With more survivors relying on their primary care clinicians, there is a clear need to strengthen the implementation of high-quality survivorship care in primary care settings. In this commentary, we explore how high-quality survivorship care can be implemented in primary care, using the implementation plan outlined in the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report Implementing High-Quality Primary Care: Rebuilding the Foundation of Health Care. We describe the evidence on primary care clinicians' roles across the cancer care continuum and map the evidence to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report's 5 implementation objectives: payment, access, workforce, digital health, and accountability. Through this work, we identify future directions for policy and research to ensure that primary care can serve as a "common good" for all cancer survivors.