ACCC Tools for Immuno-Oncology Survivorship Care

June is a month consisting of many celebrations relating to oncology. First, it is Cancer Immunotherapy Month—a time to raise awareness about the importance of immunotherapy in anti-cancer treatment. And Sunday, June 5, is National Cancer Survivors Day®, an annual celebration of life. A day held to honor those who have survived cancer (anyone who has a history cancer, from diagnosis through the remainder of life) and to emphasize that life after cancer can be full and resilient, National Cancer Survivors Day is also meant to serve as a celebration for survivors, an inspiration to those recently diagnosed with cancer, and support for families and communities.

In recognizing these two important elements of the cancer care continuum, ACCC is paying particular attention to survivorship care for patients whose cancer was treated with immunotherapy.

What Is Immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy in oncology refers to a type of treatment that uses the body’s immune system to treat cancer, with a major function of the immune system being to locate and destroy abnormal cells, including cancer cells.

There are five major types of anti-cancer immunotherapies, including:

• Immune checkpoint inhibitors
• T-cell transfer therapy
• Monoclonal antibodies
• Treatment vaccines
• Immune system modulators.

It is important to note that immunotherapy treatment is not right for every cancer case, and some immunotherapy types can cause patients to experience serious side effects (known as immune-related adverse events).

Immuno-Oncology Survivorship Care

ACCC established the Immuno-Oncology Institute to educate multidisciplinary cancer care teams to go beyond the clinical understanding of immunotherapy and tackle real-world implementation issues. The institute is at the forefront of developing critical education to empower oncology professionals across care delivery settings.

Unlike other anti-cancer treatments, cancer care standards do not require survivorship services (or care plans) to be provided to people who are treated with immunotherapies. However, ACCC’s Immuno-Oncology Institute is spreading awareness of the need to include the unique side-effect profile for people treated with immunotherapies in survivorship care plans. In doing so, ACCC created templates to guide cancer programs and patients’ needs. The templates are intended to support the management of toxicities during and beyond treatment to result in better health outcomes.

Templates include:

• Physician Talking Points, such as helpful tips on how to have comprehensive conversations with patients about their goals and needs during or after treatment.
• A Survivorship Care Plan and Care Transition Template that is designed to fit in with the plans and templates healthcare professionals may already use at their cancer center to further enhance care coordination and the patient experience.
• Immuno-Oncology Survivor Support Resources that supplement these templates with additional information specific to immunotherapy patients and their personal goals and needs.

Survivorship care is not standardized for oncology patients who were treated with immunotherapies. Therefore, in recognizing National Cancer Survivors Day this year, ACCC is highlighting the resources it has created to assist the multidisciplinary team in creating and adapting survivorship care plans to meet these patients’ unique needs and support toxicity management for better outcomes.