Abstract
Cancer survivorship care involves attention to a person's health and well-being, and addressing the physical, mental, emotional, social, and financial needs of survivors following primary treatment. Fatigue, pain, sleep disruptions, and emotional distress (e.g., anxiety and depression) are commonly experienced symptoms among cancer survivors. Symptom management interventions can enable cancer survivors to achieve optimal physical and psychological well-being, and improve overall health-related quality of life. There are several ways for participants to benefit from symptom management interventions including exchange of information, sharing experiences, reducing social isolation and through skills training that facilitate self-. Symptom management interventions can be grouped by the intervention format (e.g., individual, dyadic, group, etc.), delivery mode (e.g., in-person, self-administered, group-based, technology-based, etc.), specific cancer types (solid tumor vs. hematologic), or by the target population (older adults, racial/ethnic minorities, rural communities). Interventions may also be characterized by the approach taken to treat the symptoms, and include non-pharmacologic, behavioral, and psychological strategies. Ongoing research initiatives are now focused on the evaluation of dissemination and implementation models of evidence proven interventions, seeking to document the effectiveness of these programs in real-world settings. Given the complexity of possible interactions between personal-, disease-, and environmental-characteristics, further research is needed to elucidate which type of symptom management intervention is most effective in improving health related quality of life and reducing symptom burden among cancer survivors.