CEimpact Podcast

The Pharmacist's Role in Cancer Survivorship

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As more patients live beyond cancer treatment, survivorship care is becoming an essential—but often overlooked—part of the healthcare journey. This episode explores how pharmacists can support survivors through medication management, mental health awareness, lifestyle counseling, and connection to broader care resources. Tune in to learn how you can play a meaningful role in helping patients navigate life after cancer.

HOST
Joshua Davis Kinsey, PharmD
VP, Education
CEimpact

GUEST
Erica Marchese, PharmD, BCPS, BCOP, BCSCP, MHA
Clinical Pharmacy Program Director
City of Hope

Joshua Davis Kinsey and Erica Marchese have no relevant financial relationships to disclose.

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CPE INFORMATION
Learning Objectives
Upon successful completion of this knowledge-based activity, participants should be able to:
1. Identify common physical, emotional, and medication-related challenges faced by patients in the survivorship phase of cancer care.
2. Describe the pharmacist's role in supporting survivorship through medication review, lifestyle counseling, and care coordination.

0.05 CEU/0.5 Hr
UAN: 0107-0000-25-292-H01-P
Initial release date: 9/15/2025
Expiration date: 9/15/2026
Additional CPE details can be found here.

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Speaker 1:

ACE Impact subscribers. Welcome to the Game Changers Clinical Conversations podcast. I'm your host, josh Kinsey, and, as always, I'm excited about our conversation today. Thanks to advances in treatment, more people than ever are living beyond cancer, but survivorship comes with its own sets of challenges that don't end when treatment does. In this episode, we'll explore how pharmacists can support patients through this next phase of care by addressing ongoing health needs, promoting well-being and connecting them to the right resources. And it is so great to have our guest for today, erica Marchese. Thank you so much for joining us.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, Joshua. I'm really excited to be here today, especially excited about the topic about a pharmacist's role in cancer survivorship.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so for our learners that don't know you, erica, if you'll take just a couple minutes to tell us a little bit about yourself, and maybe your practice side and your passion for the subject, or anything else you'd like to share.

Speaker 2:

Sure, I would love to. So I reside in the Chicagoland area. I attended Roslyn Franklin College of Pharmacy in North Chicago, where I had fantastic professors that really shaped my clinical knowledge, but also they really inspired me to pursue my passion, which was oncology, and because of this I've now been at City of Hope for 15 years. I've held a variety of roles both inside and outside of the pharmacy. Within the pharmacy, I started as a pharmacy technician, eventually became a clinical pharmacist and had the privilege of holding two leadership roles there, one being the director of pharmacy at our Chicago-based hospital. Now I am the clinical pharmacy program director, where my primary role is to help with aligned pharmacy practices from a clinical standpoint and ensure safe medication use and quality of our medication usage.

Speaker 2:

I would say over the past five years I really have turned some of my attention toward survivorship, and that's primarily because my mother was diagnosed with cancer and she fought courageously and, happy to say, she came out victorious. But what we were not ready for, no one really discussed was what is that next chapter look like?

Speaker 1:

And that's survivorship right.

Speaker 2:

We definitely learned firsthand the challenges that came with this new chapter, and they were, both mentally and physically, some pretty big challenges.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, you know it's. It's something most of the learners that they've. They've heard me talk before and everything. But my husband is also a pharmacist and he's in the oncology space and I feel like, even you know, in interacting with him, I had never really heard the term survivorship that much before. It wasn't really something that I had heard, so it was super interesting to me. And then I feel like it's what's that effect where, like, you hear something once and then all of a sudden you hear it?

Speaker 2:

over and over and over and over again.

Speaker 1:

And so I felt like it was mentioned once to me and then it just kept coming up in conversation and so we really wanted to do an episode on this because I think it's something that's just it's really important and, as you said, I think there are a lot of opportunities for pharmacists in this space, which is great. So, with that being said, thanks again for being here and let's go ahead and jump into the content. And what I want to do first is really dig into kind of defining survivorship. So if you can kind of take a few minutes to tell us what you think you know the definition is You've told us from that personal experience, which is so important, but yeah, just kind of defining it and what does it entail and what do we mean when we say you know survivorship space?

Speaker 2:

Sure, so I really like. The National Cancer Institute defines survivorship as the period of when a patient's diagnosed through the rest of the individual's life and cancer survivorship. It's definitely growing, which I think is fantastic, and I think a lot of that is because of the advances in early detection and the advances in treatments. So the American Cancer Society actually reported in January of 2025, so this year that one in every 18 Americans in the United States are cancer survivors. Wow, yeah, pretty, pretty great statistic, right. So we know that many of these individuals they will adjust to the diagnosis of cancer. But there is a subgroup that will really struggle with this transition to a SERS-AV-AVAR-SHIP phase. That'll be a little harder for them to adjust. We know, right, that cancer is very overwhelming. There's a study that was done at the Fred Hutchinson's Cancer Research Center that's in Seattle Washington that I think showed a great statistic and that was that their study revealed that 18 to 20% of long-term adult cancer survivors a lot of them report signs of anxiety.

Speaker 2:

That's a pretty big number.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure, and I mean not surprising.

Speaker 1:

I mean, you know, I feel like that that would be, yeah, something big in there. Yeah, I don't I'm so anxious to hear more. I just feel like this is such an interesting topic. One thing that I would like to interject and maybe this is too early and we can come back to it or whatever but is there ever any, is there any data on the fact of there being like feeling of like guilt for being the one you know, like cause? A lot of people don't survive cancer and they don't survive the fight, or it is detected too late and you know there there are no treatment options or whatever. But those that are surviving is there, you know, are they? Are they battling with some of the guilt, like survivor's guilt? You know what I mean.

Speaker 2:

I imagine a lot of those. That definitely goes hand in hand with that anxiety that's being reported.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah for sure. So obviously cancer is a huge public health issue and priority. And so if you want to speak just a couple minutes on just the overall impact of cancer survivors in the US, like what are some of in the US, like what are some of the other challenges that they face, like what are some of the other things in this space of survivorship are they really facing? So you talked about anxiety and some emotional things, but what else are we seeing from that?

Speaker 2:

So some other challenges that they're seeing are probably a lot of mental health concerns, so that anxiety, that depression, that fear of reoccurrence, and we know that those types of those can be easily missed by providers. So I think that's extremely important for our multidisciplinary teams to really proactively screen for those and treat them accordingly, because those can really impact a survivor's life and their ability to thrive.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure. And you know we talked in our briefing before. We kind of touched on the fact that there's also, you know, the financial component of going through cancer treatment. Like that's usually never cheap, like it's going to be expensive and there could be bills and debt. That's usually never cheap, like it's going to be expensive and there could be bills and debt. That's coming from that survivorship, you know, from that treatment in this phase, and so that's obviously just adding to the stress and the anxiety. And you know, another challenge.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and then I would imagine too and again I don't, I don't want to like put words in the mouth of whatever, but I imagine too that there, you know, cancer patients often if they're living longer, then other comorbidities are going to come up, right, they're going to have other things that come up later in life, whether it's high blood pressure or diabetes or whatever, and so just additional medical challenges that they're facing too. So just a lot of things in this space that you just medical challenges that they're facing too. So just a lot of things in this space that you just you know that's general life but weighing in the fact that they also fought and survived cancer, like that's just a whole, nother burden. That's there. So, yeah, so we're going to dig deep into the role of pharmacists, which is our overall goal. That's what we really want to talk about. But just as an overview, you've touched on a little bit how the pharmacist can interplay and be in that multidisciplinary role. But just in general, what success have you seen with pharmacists being in this survivorship space?

Speaker 2:

Sure, so I'm going to really set it up with how my practice site does.

Speaker 2:

I think, it's just a very good example.

Speaker 2:

But where I practice at City of Hope in Chicago, our pharmacists are strategically placed throughout our oncology clinics so that when a physician walks out any of the patient doors there's a pharmacist sitting right there and they are able to assist with any patient needs, answer questions, and this really helps them play a big role on that multidisciplinary team Also allows them, just in general, to be more proactive rather than reactive.

Speaker 2:

So, for instance, fragmentation of care is a general concern among our cancer patients. So I think a way that pharmacists can really help overcome that fragmented care is through medication management strategies. So really zoning in on those side effect management strategies, medication interventions they can make, reducing polypharmacy and then, of course, preventing any drug interactions and then, of course, preventing any drug interactions, especially if our patients are on chemotherapy Right. So this, where our pharmacists are focusing on their expertise, which is medication management, it really allows for more of a sharing patient care responsibilities with the other members of the multidisciplinary team so they can focus more on the emotional, the physical, the mental, the psychosocial and, like you mentioned, the financial strain that comes with a cancer diagnosis. I know my site has definitely seen it and many sites across the US that having a pharmacist implemented right at the beginning so diagnosis for initial treatment and throughout survivorship has shown a lot of benefits uh, not just for our role as a pharmacist, but for the whole team.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, that's great. And just reiterating the fact that you know the the model that you shared is more of a health system set up, but it doesn't preclude other pharmacists from doing something similar. You know, if you're in a community or AmCare setting or anything like that, you're still able to kind of interject. And we're going to talk more about all those different ways that you can interplay into this, into these collaborative teams. So with that, let's go ahead and jump into what we kind of highlighted as some of our opportunities for pharmacists, so really kind of laying out what are the things that you can do. So you touched on it, so let's go into it a little bit deeper is optimizing those medication regimens for the long-term comorbidities and so forth. So I'll let you kind of talk to that for a little bit.

Speaker 2:

Sure. So lots of great opportunities for pharmacists, right, like you said, optimizing medication regimens to really manage those long-term comorbidities and those long-term side effects that chemotherapy could cause. So I think of two great examples that I've seen in our clinics would be, for instance, our diabetic patients. They have a comorbidity and they're potentially on chemotherapy or other treatment that goes hand in hand with their oncology diagnosis and it could be causing fluctuations in their glucose. Another example is our patients that are on chemotherapy that could cause long-term cardiovascular issues or could worsen cardiovascular issues that the patient already has.

Speaker 2:

I think another opportunity for our pharmacists is and I know we've all learned it in school, right the importance of medication adherence. So our pharmacists really asking those open-ended questions to really explore more opportunities how we can help patients. So asking them a couple of questions I like to use are can you explain to me what, what makes it hard for you to take your medications as prescribed, or can you describe for me your medication routine? Just trying to listen and find those opportunities with our patients I think is very beneficial. Yeah, yeah, sorry no go ahead.

Speaker 2:

Um, also I would have to say that and I'm going to jump out of the pharmacy space for a minute, because health care is a team sport. We all know this right. So I really think I want I have to touch on the amazing support that are that the other members of the multidisciplinary team are able to provide for our patients. So our lead behavioral therapists saw many opportunities of when a patient moves from more of that treatment phase into the survivorship phase. They saw that patients were very fearful. You know they're going from a team where they felt comfortable. It was familiar faces to them and now some of those team members could be changing. So our behavioral therapists really like to focus on empowering patients so they can be active in this next step of their journey their initial visit, their new patient visit and then where they can establish that baseline of distress for our patients and then they'll see them at every subsequent visit after that. This really establishes that relationship. So when our patients do move from into more of a palliative or treatment or palliative or survivorship phase, they feel more comfortable, they're more at ease about it.

Speaker 2:

Another example is, for our breast cancer patients, the importance of garment fitting. So our post-surgical breast cancer patients that have just received a lumpectomy or a mastectomy, really getting those patients into the appropriate fitting bras so that they have, I should say the bras are designed to be very soft and they're just designed to support more than a regular bras. They also help to manage swelling and, most importantly, they allow patients to really perform their daily activities more comfortably, which also helps promote healing. Yeah, yeah, so another, I think another opportunity that's probably overlooked or maybe a little unexpected is the importance of a sexual therapist. So these individuals are professionally trained, they help to navigate an individual's sexual health, intimacy or relationships, and they are very specialized to have these sensitive conversations about these sensitive topics with our patients, but in a very respectful way. We know that cancer definitely affects a patient's sexual interest. They affect the way they see themselves, their body image, their ability to perform intimately and just their physical comfort in general. So these individuals, they are great at helping a patient with different strategies that can help overcome these barriers.

Speaker 2:

And I have one more opportunity and it's actually my favorite opportunity and I think it's one of the most important, but it's providing patients with and connecting with resources that they need. So my favorite organization is called Cancer Fighters. It was established in 1990 by City of Hope and it offers opportunities to individuals to really tap into the experiences of members across the country. So people are probably wondering what is a cancer fighter? It can be a patient, it can be a caregiver, it can be a friend, a family member. It's anyone that is looking to connect over the idea that no one should fight cancer alone. Another great feature of cancer fighters is that they will actually train survivors to mentor and support a new patient that's just at the start of their journey, which I think is very special because they've all been in that seat previously.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, one question I have. I feel like backing up a little bit, maybe too far back, sorry, but one question I have is well, just from the things that you've mentioned and the ways in which the pharmacist can plug in, I guess my question is could there ever be a patient who is in survivorship space in that mode, who is still on a chemotherapy agent? There could be right, so definitely.

Speaker 2:

A lot of the team in the multidisciplinary team, a lot of those specialists, the patients already seeing while they're I guess you could say quote unquote in the treatment phase. So there really isn't a huge shift. But new individuals might join the team as they enter more of a palliative or survivorship phase. But yes, definitely a patient in the treatment phase. Survivorship definitely begins.

Speaker 1:

Okay, okay, makes sense, okay. So we talked about optimizing those medication regimens and realizing, too, that the longer a patient survives and lives, the more likely that they're going to have other things come up down the road, and that's just again. That's our specialty as pharmacists. That's what we do. We take care of the other disease states that pop up in a patient's life. So that's something else you mentioned too. And if we can go back to it just for a minute and I've heard my husband mention this in passing, but I'm not too keen on all of the different cancer treatments out there, but there are some that have, like you said, late effects, right, like things that can happen even at long after they're done with it, long after they've been, you know, in survivorship mode or whatever. There could still be effects from a medication, right? So maybe just speak to that for a minute or two as to like what that looks like and things that we can be on the lookout for as pharmacists in that space too.

Speaker 2:

Sure, there are some chemotherapy agents which I'm sure many of us know that do have those come with those warnings of cardiotoxicity and a lot of those side effects do present for a patient later in life. So our patients are definitely educated about it. What are signs and symptoms. But the care team is also taking a proactive approach and really monitoring. You know whether it's for the agent is causing a cardiotoxicity, really monitoring. Maybe they're getting regular echoes for a patient.

Speaker 2:

So you know we can really be proactive and maybe help to minimize some of those long-term effects, but also help to control them. In the end, we'll never get rid of them, but we can really help to control them.

Speaker 1:

Sure, sure, yeah, that makes sense. And then you touched on adherence, which is key for everything that we do in general. So that's super important. And then you talked about again, you know, looking for interactions, whether that be with other medications or, you know, with other over the counter meds or anything like that. One thing I don't know that we touched on a lot, but another option or another opportunity for pharmacists is also to help in that deep prescribing phase where you know, like we see it just in general, with patients who were discharged from the hospital for, you know, after a surgery or after a stay, and they were on something and they stayed on it for a month, but then should they really still be on it? And is this something that they should, you know, have stopped a long time ago, or whatever? So, just again, the importance of that continued follow-up care and just double checking, like what are you on this for? Should you still be taking this, you know, or whatever? And always being on the lookout for things that we could get rid of if they're, you know, not needed, or you know it always comes to mind I feel like they get a bad rap. Ppis, I feel like, are always the ones that end up coming with all discharges, and maybe not everybody should still be on it and whatever, but just things like that that we should be looking for just to make sure. Obviously, duplicative therapy if there's anything where we felt like, you know, should they really still be on this additional blood pressure medication, you know, or whatever. So, yeah, great opportunities there as well for pharmacists to really kind of be in that space too.

Speaker 1:

One thing I want to touch on a little bit more. You kind of touched on them, but let's dig a little deeper into some of the things that our patients in that survivorship space are going to be dealing with, and that is exercise and sleep and nutrition and other wellness things, mental wellness and whatever, because we all know that. I mean, I'm a stress eater. Some people are stress non-eaters, you know, like they don't eat when they're stressed, and so there could be nutrition concerns there. But obviously, if you're a stress eater, there could still be concerns for gaining weight or not getting the right kind of caloric intake or whatever. So, yeah, if we can kind of speak to that for a little bit and kind of again, what is the role of pharmacists in this space? Should we be connecting them to certain people? Should we be looking out for certain things, or whatever?

Speaker 2:

So yeah, Sure, I think these are all great counseling points for pharmacists, right? So another obviously pharmacists can bring to the table are really talking to patients about not only long-term side effects of chemotherapy but also the importance of ongoing and yearly immunizations. Sun safety is a big one, and then general health maintenance, like you've mentioned, maintaining a healthy diet. We might not be the experts, but we definitely can collaborate with the other members of the team bringing in nutritionists to really help zone in. They're the subject matter experts there, but we're definitely there to support all the way, and I think we have a lot of great counseling tips as well that can really feed into a lot of those different topics.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great. I love the sun protection one. That's not one that I mean we should be thinking more about it in general but yeah, for sure that's a great one to point out as well. Okay, and of course, I love the immunizations one. There's a lot of discourse right now over immunizations and recommendations and whatnot, but I think we'll always be a huge proponent of immunizations and the necessity of those, and that is why we live in the world that we live in that's free from disease as we know it. So those are big ones, I think, in general, to advocate for and promote. And then you touched on resources and you mentioned at least one of your favorites. Are there any other resources out there or places that pharmacists can go Like again thinking about other practice sites of pharmacists, so maybe ones who aren't on directly on the multidisciplinary team but are filling the prescriptions or, you know, at the specialty care pharmacy site and doing you know the prescriptions that are long-term treatment or whatnot? Yeah, any sort of other resources that you can think of to share with that?

Speaker 2:

Sure, I actually am going to be very broad, but I do think the American Cancer Society does a great job at really providing resources to not only pharmacists or other clinicians but also to patients. They hit on a lot of topics you know to help patients with, you know, just general questions education, financial resources and really transportation resources A lot of different, I think, great resources for cancer patients. I know that's very broad, but I really do think they do a great job.

Speaker 1:

No, I agree. And you know something else that we have discussed a lot we actually have a training program for community health workers and we cross-train pharmacy technicians as community health workers so that they're embedded in the pharmacy to help connect to resources and connect patients to the things that they need. So I immediately went to that would be a great space for your you know, pharmacy technician trained CHWs to be in as well and connecting patients back to those resources that they need. Some of the other things that came to mind for me was potentially rehab for patients. You know, maybe, if they you know, if they went through something where they suffered muscle mass loss or you know something where they just don't have their strength and so they need some rehab.

Speaker 1:

So connecting patients back to you know resources for even support groups, because I think that you know we don't necessarily think of that. We think of that for you know addictions, but we don't necessarily always think about that for patients who are going through something as traumatizing as a cancer diagnosis. So I think support groups are another opportunity. Again, it's that space where you can have someone knowledgeable in what's available in your community and your resources that you can share out with your patients. So okay, so we've talked about all the gold linings of everything, right, all the silver linings of the cloud, so let's talk a little bit about the challenges that pharmacists might face in some of these things. So you did mention fragmented care and I think that that is, I think that is fluid across all practice sites in pharmacy. Like we see that everywhere. We see definitive times where we're like nobody knew this and this provider didn't know this and there was no follow-up or whatever. So is there anything else there on maybe strategies or solutions to help overcome that fragmented care that you can share?

Speaker 2:

Yes, fragmented care is a genuine concern, especially for our cancer patients. I know I work at a practice site where at least 50% of our patients are traveling from out of state, so we see this every day. So it's really top of mind for our providers and our whole multidisciplinary team to really ensure that a patient's medication list is up to date at every single visit and we know the importance of that right and also, if there's any treatment changes, really ensuring that those outside providers are aware of that so we can try and prevent that lack of coordination among the patient's providers, whether that's an oncologist, a primary care provider, any other specialist that the patient has To get into. Some more challenges, I would have to say, is I mentioned that as one of the opportunities that a pharmacist can play is about really helping with those side effects.

Speaker 2:

But some of those side effects can be extremely difficult to kind of point out. So, like your pain, your fatigue, your neuropathy, any cognitive changes, a lot of those can require more tailored and strategic management strategies, more individualized to a patient, and I think a lot of times patients could feel that those are overlooked or maybe not addressed appropriately by the care team. Another big challenge and we've mentioned it previously in our discussion was mental health and how prevalent it is. So really zoning in on those anxiety, depression and the fear of reoccurrence and ensuring that our providers are more proactive about addressing those, because those can really affect our survivors' quality of life long term.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure, and you mentioned something that I would have eventually thought of, I guess, if I just really sat and thought of it for a long time. But you're right, a lot of our patients are seeking expert care, specialized care, and it's far away from their home or their normal practice, setting their normal providers and whatnot. So that's a great point in that you, in that the pharmacist needs to always be sure that they have the most recent information about that patient, because it could be that something happened at their appointment with their specialist that's not even in the same state perhaps. So, yeah, so definitely something to think about there. That's a great point, and you're right.

Speaker 1:

Just in general, I think our country has a difficult time addressing mental health concerns, and so I think that it's something to always be top of mind.

Speaker 1:

And it makes sense too, with those additional lingering symptoms.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to downplay them at all, because they are integral parts of how our patients feel. But it makes sense how you're so laser focused on the cancer treatment and the cancer care and like making sure that everything is taken care of there, that sometimes those might be overlooked, like we forget that they are also in pain or that they're super tired or that they don't have the strength to do, you know, daily activities or whatnot. So so, yeah, I think that's really important to point out as well. It's just a pain point no pun intended a pain point for us to really be on the lookout for as pharmacists, and something to kind of make sure that that the other, the holistic approach that they're being taken care of, and all that. So yeah, so this is all so great, such good information Are there, and I would imagine it's probably some of the resources that you've mentioned before, but how can we, as pharmacists, stay the most up to date and informed on like survivorship and things to be sure that we're doing in that space for our patients?

Speaker 2:

Sure, I, of course, being an oncology pharmacist, always going to appoint to NCCN.

Speaker 1:

They of course, have great guidelines, not just for pharmacy in general, but our behavioral therapist uses a lot of their resources as well. They have a great assessment of distress, so I would say that's probably that's very helpful. So, just as a wrap up, because we're I'm always shocked that we're already out of time, but I don't know why, because I love to talk and I love to get guests on who love to talk. So we end up getting to the end of our session quickly.

Speaker 1:

Comprehensive medication reviews, coming at it from that lens of a pharmacist and really kind of trying to see the entire landscape and making sure that we're aware of all the different things going on with the patient comorbidities, other things like that. So really kind of approaching those medication reviews with a broader lens, maintaining adherence, advocating for deprescribing at times when necessary, things like that, really focusing on those quality of life concerns, whether they be mental or emotional or physical, not forgetting about some of those things that go hand in hand with treatments the pain, the neuropathy, things like that. One thing we didn't really touch on but I think this is just good practice in general is to always use respectful and empowering language when we're talking with these patients, you know, and also to sometimes perhaps give some grace, understanding that they have been through a lot and you know, sometimes maybe some of their frustration or anger is not really directed at us as their pharmacists, so, but just always, you know, keeping maybe some of their frustration or anger is not really directed at us as their pharmacists, so, but just always, you know, keeping in mind that for the patients as well. And then I think we said it many, many times and I'll just reiterate it one more time collaboration, multidisciplinary approach, like I think those are key, and just making sure that everyone is on the same page at all times, because that's really what's going to not only get our patients across the finish line, but, if the finish line is entering survivorship, then, you know, sustain them throughout that time. So that's great.

Speaker 1:

Well, first I'll ask if there's anything else that you'd like to add and then, if so, you're welcome to share. But then my final question is what do you think the game changer is here, erica? Like what is the big take home point for our learners today from today's subject?

Speaker 2:

Sure, I'll go back and I'll add just a couple of things. I think, as a pharmacist, we've all learned in pharmacy school definitely just the basics right, Avoiding medical jargon. Pharmacy school definitely just the basics right. Avoiding medical jargon, keeping it simple for our patients. Simple goes a long way, right, Our patients can actually digest what we say. I think listening to a patient, really understanding their wants and their barriers, their experiences, any challenges they're facing, I think a pharmacist can really shape the survivorship journey to be more individualized for that patient. I think we've been trained and we're very good at that.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say every journey is unique, right? Like nobody has the same cancer journey and nobody's going to have the same survivorship journey. So, yeah, not at all.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, definitely agree. And just to echo what you said, I think I've seen the positives of a multidisciplinary approach and just, you know, it's a team sport right Bringing in those big key players sexual therapy, fertility specialists, rehab specialists, nutritionists, whatever the patient needs, because collaboration is key, right. So, and and I could not could not echo more about the language we use, providers in general we always need to keep empowering our patients, reminding them that we're on their team, with them, and that we're going to be here every step of the way with them. I think that that goes a long way and really builds that relationship with our patients. Yeah, oh, and I can go into the game changers as well.

Speaker 2:

So I think probably the biggest takeaways I would say is that survivorship is really a vital part of the cancer journey.

Speaker 2:

Um and it's one that, as we've talked about it, requires a lot of support. While there's advancements in treatments that have shown to improve outcomes, addressing those long-term physical, emotional, psychosocial needs of a survivor, they're equally as essential, and we need to remember that. So, enhancing care coordination, managing those late effects and, most importantly, I think, empowering patients with the resources and strategies they need, they can help them not just live longer, but it can help them thrive, and I think that's most important.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. So no longer it's like, it's almost like we've moved the finish line right. So the finish line used to be like overcome cancer and survive, and now it's like, okay, but we're doing that and we're doing that well, so now we need to push the needle further and we need to take care of them after that. So yeah, so yeah, this is. This has been so good. Thank you, erica, again for giving us your time today. I really appreciate it and we just are grateful for you giving us an hour of your day. So thank you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, I really appreciate it. I had a lot of fun.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, thank you. If you're a CE plan subscriber, be sure to claim your CE credit for this episode of Game Changers by logging in at CEimpactcom and, as always, have a great week and keep learning. I can't wait to dig into another game changing topic with you all again next week.