[Prognostic relevance of oncologic after-care]

Follow-up programs in oncology after potentially curative therapy intent to detect recurrent cancer, to initiate a new curative therapy, to detect side-effects and secondary cancer. The prognostic relevance of follow-up in oncology can be defined as the rate of asymptomatic detected potentially curable recurrences. Follow-up programs of different tumors usually combine various diagnostic methods in a standardized schedule. The prognostic relevance of this follow-up programs is investigated in only very few studies. While efficacy of the follow-up in gastro-intestinal cancer must be questioned, follow-up in non-seminomatous germ cell cancer has proven to be effective. This shows that global statements about prognostic relevance of follow-up can not be made. It is therefore necessary to investigate the actual follow-up programs in clinical studies whether they are effective to improve the prognosis in cancer patients. Where the actual programs fail to be effective new risk-adapted follow-up concepts must be created. New approaches in diagnosis and treatment of cancer have to tested whether they can improve the effect of follow-up programs.