Specialist and general practice views on routine follow-up of breast cancer patients in general practice

The practice of routinely following-up breast cancer in hospitalclinics is of widespread concern: studies have shown that itis not an effective way of detecting recurrent disease and itplaces great strain on cancer services which are already overstretched.A general practice centred system of routine follow-up may bea solution to this problem in those countries which have a strongprimary care base. Such a system would have other benefits suchas continuity of care for the patient. The objective of thisstudy was to determine the views of general practitioners andspecialists on follow-up of patients with breast cancer in remission,with special emphasis on their views on the transfer of routinefollow-up from the hospital to general practice. A postal questionnairesurvey of British breast cancer specialists (response rate 77.0%)and a personal interview survey of British general practitioners(response rate 81.8%) were conducted. The results show thatBritish general practitioners are willing to take on greaterresponsibility for the routine follow-up care of their patientswith breast cancer. However, there was frequently a mis-matchbetween specialists' and general practitioners' views on thissubject.