[Follow-up of tumor patients]

There are two main reasons for routine follow-up examinations after treatment of cancer patients: 1. Assessment of treatment efficacy and detection of relapse; 2. rating of drug side-effects. Routine controls can only efficiently be performed with a profound knowledge of the biology of the tumor and of the therapeutic efficacy of the available treatments. The frequency and the type of the follow-up examinations depend mainly on the curative or the palliative treatment possibilities. Examples of useless controls are mentioned. Through the prevention of unnecessary examinations the primary care physician could play an important role in the cut down of health care costs.