Nurse-led breast cancer follow-up improves quality of life

Nurse-led follow-up for early breast cancer provided significant improvements in quality of life for patients compared with regular outpatient visits with physicians, a Journal of Clinical Oncology study found. The authors say that the study could suggest a new strategy for follow-up of patients treated with early-stage breast cancer. A total of 503 patients were randomly assigned to the nurse-led intervention or to outpatient visits with a physician. The nurse-led intervention entailed individual self-management sessions, regular reporting of symptoms and navigation to health care services. Patients who received the nurse-led follow-up reported significantly less fear of recurrence, anxiety and depression. They also had fewer physician consultations but more nurse contacts and an unchanged diagnostic imaging pattern. (MedPage Today article, 10/22/24)