Development of a survivorship program.

The number of cancer survivors has steadily climbed to more than 10 million since the 1980s secondary to advances in detection and treatment modalities. This reality, combined with an aging population, has drawn the attention of the medical community to meet the needs of this population. Therefore, cancer care providers are being called to develop survivorship programs for patients with curable disease. Some of the prominent organizations supporting this movement for focused survivorship care include the Institute of Medicine, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, LiveStrong™, and the Oncology Nursing Society. This article provides the necessary steps for the development and implementation of an institution-specific survivorship program to fulfill the new standards for survivorship care.