Resources for Health Professionals and Researchers

Improving Emotional Health, Quality of Life, and Healthy Behaviors

• Self-Management Education: Learn More. Feel Better.
• Cancer self-management education (SME) programs
• Health-Related Quality of Life: Key Concepts
• Distress Screening and Psychosocial Care for Cancer Survivors
• CDC Expert Commentary by Dr. Natasha Buchanan
• My Personal Prescription for Surviving Cancer by George Hilliard (Blog)
• Being a Cancer Survivor Reminds Me Life is Precious by Traci Ramirez (Blog)
• Managing Stress
• Smoking and Cancer Fact Sheet (PDF)

Treatment and Follow-Up Care

• Caring for Cancer Survivors who use Tobacco [PDF-382KB]
• Chemotherapy’s Most Serious Side Effect by Dr. Lisa Richardson (Blog)
• Prescription for Cancer Information– A tool to help health care professionals talk to survivors about resources available in their office or clinic, in the community, online, and over the telephone.
• Moving Beyond Patient Satisfaction: Tips to Measure Program Impact Guide-A brief guide detailing indicators and outcome measures that can be used to monitor the success of survivorship programs.
• Cancer Survivorship E-Learning Series for Primary Care Providers– Learn about an E-learning series to help primary care providers understand the needs of cancer survivors and deliver better follow-up care.
• Advancing Survivorship Care Through the National Cancer Survivorship Resource Center: Developing American Cancer Society Guidelines for Primary Care Providers The Survivorship Center is coordinating the work of experts in oncology, primary care, and other health care professions to develop follow-up care guidelines for 10 priority cancer sites. Learn more in this article published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
• National Cancer Survivorship Resource Center: Survivorship Care Guidelines
• Survivorship Care Plans
• Guide for Delivering Quality Survivorship Care (Provides health care professionals with the knowledge, tools, and resources to deliver high-quality follow-up care to cancer survivors.)
• Cancer Survivorship Care Plans: A Toolkit for Health Care Professionals

Preventing Infections in Cancer Patients and Survivors

• Preventing Infections in Cancer Patients: For Providers
• Preventing Infections in Cancer Patients (Web Feature)
• Preventing Infections During Cancer Treatment: Program Materials for Health Care Providers: (Fact sheets, posters, and podcasts on topics such as sepsis, neutropenia, and risk for infection)
• Health Tip Sheets on Preventing Infections:
• Videos on Preventing Infections:
• CDC Expert Commentary Videos:
  • Protect Outpatient Oncology Patients from Infections by Alice Guh, MD, MPH
  • New Tool to Prevent Infections During Chemotherapy by Lisa Richardson, MD, MPH
  • Keeping Patients Safe From Infection in Outpatient Settings: by Joseph Perz, DrPH, MA
  • Moving Toward Safer Outpatient Care: CDC Releases Guide for Preventing Infections by Melissa Schaefer, MD
• Risk Assessment Test: (Neutropenia is recognized as the most serious hematologic toxicity during cancer treatment with chemotherapy. This website explains how providers can use the online test to help patients understand their risk for developing neutropenia.)
• Protect Cancer Patients from Infections by Alice Guh, MD, MPH (BLOG)
• Flu Prevention:
  • Flu Treatment for Cancer Patients and Survivors
  • Prevention Strategies for Seasonal Influenza in Healthcare Settings
  • Flu – Free Resources, Fact Sheets, Posters, etc.
  • Cancer, the Flu, and You (Web Feature)
• Cancer Patients and Fungal Infections
• Infection prevention in outpatient oncology settings: CDC offers tools to fight back against infections among cancer patients [PDF]
• Basic Infection Control and Prevention Plan for Outpatient Oncology Settings (homepage)
  • Basic Infection Control and Prevention Plan for Outpatient Oncology Settings (PDF)
  • CDC Guideline for Hand Hygiene in Health-Care Settings [PDF 496 KB]
  • CDC Guidelines for the Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections, 2011
  • 2007 Guideline for Isolation Precautions: Preventing Transmission of Infectious Agents in Healthcare Settings
• Guide to Infection Prevention for Outpatient Settings: Minimum Expectations for Safe Care
  • Guide to Infection Prevention for Outpatient Settings (Complete Guide and Checklist) [PDF- 1,470 KB]
  • Infection Prevention for Outpatient Settings (Checklist only) [PDF- 1,287 KB]
• Infection Control Assessment Tools (multiple direct links to pdf documents available)
• 2011 Guidelines for the Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Related Infections

Family History and Genomics

• Does Breast or Ovarian Cancer Run in Your Family? (Web Feature)
• Quick Facts about Family Health History and Genetic Testing for Breast Cancer and Ovarian Cancer
• Cancer and Family History: Using Genomics for Cancer Prevention: CDC Public Health Grand Rounds
• Breast and Ovarian Cancer and Family History Risk Categories: (Provides information about average, moderate and strong family histories of breast and ovarian cancer.)
• Genetic Counseling and Evaluation for BRCA1/2 Testing: (Genetic counseling is important to help women make informed decisions about genetic testing to find out if they have an increased risk for breast or ovarian cancer because of their family history.)
• Know:BRCA Tool: (The Know:BRCA online tool is a resource developed to help women understand their risks for having a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation.)
• Genetic Testing for Lynch Syndrome: (Genetic testing is used to find out if a person’s colorectal cancer is hereditary so that family members can learn if they are also at increased risk.)
• Fact Sheet: Family History is Important for Health
• CDC Public Health Genomics Knowledge Base
• Public Health Genomics: Cancer Survivorship
• Family History: Everyone’s Story: Series of PSA’s and Case Studies for Health Care Providers
• Family History Collection Tools
• Genomics Implementation: (Information on genomic applications that are ready to be integrated into public health practice to save lives, improve health and quality of life.)

Web Plus

• Web Plus Survivorship Module
• Web Plus Survivorship Module Video

CDC Programs and Funding

• CDC responds to broad challenges facing US cancer survivors (news release)
• Multiple Approaches to Increase Awareness and Support Among Young Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer
• Cooperative Agreement to Support Young Women Diagnosed with Breast Cancer
• CDC Awards Funding to Support Cancer Genomics
• National Cancer Survivorship Resource Center

CDC’s Research

• Cancer Survivorship Research
• Breast Cancer Research
• Breast Cancer in Young Women Research
• Colorectal Cancer Research
• Lung Cancer Research
• Prostate Cancer Research
• Skin Cancer Research
• Cancer Survivorship Supplement
• 2 of 3 People Are Living At Least Five Years After Cancer Diagnosis
• Health Behaviors and Follow-Up Care Among Colorectal Cancer Survivors
• Malignant Melanoma in Non-Hispanic Black Patients
• Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors

Data Resources

• Cancer Data and Statistics Tools
• Other Cancer Data Sources
• Cancer Incidence in American Indians and Alaska Natives

CDC Resources by Cancer Type

• Cervical
• Ovarian
  • Ovarian Cancer Info: Healthcare Providers
• Uterine
• Vaginal and Vulvar
• Colorectal
• Lung

Caregiving Resources

• Caregiving: A Public Health Priority
• Family Caregiving: The Facts
• Assuring Healthy Caregivers, A Public Health Approach to Translating Research into Practice: The RE-AIM Framework
• Protecting the Health of Family Caregivers (Podcast)
• Caregiving in Indian Country (Podcast)
• Seven Key Findings from 8-Year Study of Cancer Caregivers (American Cancer Society)
• Caregivers and Family (American Cancer Society)
• Support for Caregivers (National Cancer Institute) (Guides for caregivers of loved ones with cancer)
• Caregiver Resource Kit (Medicare) (Resources designed to help caregivers work with Medicare to ensure their family members and friends receive the best possible care)
• Caregivers as Partners and Clients of Behavioral Health Services (PDF) (Administration on Aging)
• Orientation to Caregiving, Second Edition: A Handbook for Family Caregivers of Patients with Brain Tumors[PDF] (University of California San Francisco)
• Clinical Trials for Caregivers of Cancer Patients (ClinicalTrials.gov)
• Caregiving (Cancer Support Community)
• Support for Caregivers (CancerCare) (Free support services for caregivers and loved ones, including counseling by professional oncology social workers, support groups, and education workshops)

Caregiving Research

• Sklenarova H, Krümpelmann A, Haun MW, Friederich HC, Huber J, Thomas M, Winkler EC, Herzog W, Hartmann M. When do we need to care about the caregiver? Supportive care needs, anxiety, and depression among informal caregivers of patients with cancer and cancer survivors. Cancer 2015.
• Lund L, Ross L, Petersen MA, Groenvold M. Cancer caregiving tasks and consequences and their associations with caregiver status and the caregiver’s relationship to the patient: a survey. BMC Cancer 2014;14:541.
• Kavanaugh M, Kramer BJ, Walsh MC, Trentham-Dietz A. Factors contributing to economic burden in lung cancer spousal caregivers. Palliative and Supportive Care 2014:1–10.
• McMullen CK, Schneider J, Altschuler A, Grant M, Hornbrook MC, Liljestrand P, Krouse RS. Caregivers as health care managers: health management activities, needs, and caregiving relationships for colorectal cancer survivors with ostomies. Supportive Care in Cancer 2014;22(9):2401–2408.
• McPherson CJ, Hadjistavropoulos T, Lobchuk MM, Kilgour KN. Cancer-related pain in older adults receiving palliative care: patient and family caregiver perspectives on the experience of pain. Pain Research and Management 2013;18(6):293–300.
• Anderson LA, Edwards VJ, Pearson WS, Talley RC, McGuire LC, Andresen EM. Adult caregivers in the United States: characteristics and differences in well-being, by caregiver age and caregiving status. Preventing Chronic Disease 2013;10:130090.
• Li C, Zeliadt SB, Hall IJ, Smith JL, Ekwueme DU, Moinpour CM, Penson DF, Thompson IM, Keane TE,Ramsey SD. Burden among partner caregivers of patients diagnosed with localized prostate cancer within 1 year after diagnosis: an economic perspective. Supportive Care in Cancer 2013;21(12):3461–3469.
• Bevans M, Sternberg EM. Caregiving burden, stress, and health effects among family caregivers of adult cancer patients. JAMA 2012;307(4):398–403.
• Silveira MJ, Given CW, Cease KB, Sikorskii A, Given B, Northouse LL, Piette JD. Cancer care partners: improving patients’ symptom management by engaging informal caregivers. BMC Palliative Care 2011;10:21.
• Mazanec SR, Daly BJ, Douglas SL, Lipson AR. Work productivity and health of informal caregivers of persons with advanced cancer. Research in Nursing and Health 2011;34(6):483–495.
• Mazanec P, Daly BJ, Ferrell BR, Prince-Paul M. Lack of communication and control: experiences of distance caregivers of parents with advanced cancer. Oncology Nursing Forum 2011;38(3):307–313.
• MetLife Study of Caregiving Costs to Working Caregivers: Double Jeopardy for Baby Boomers Caring for Their Parents [PDF-659KB] (June 2011)
• Valuing the Invaluable: The Economic Value of Family Caregiving, 2008 Update [PDF-90KB] (November 2008)
• Evercare Study of Family Caregivers—What They Spend, What They Sacrifice: The Personal Financial Toll of Caring for a Loved One [PDF-1.2MB](November 2007)
• Evercare Study of Caregivers in Decline: A Close-up Look at the Health Risks of Caring for a Loved One [PDF-954KB] (September 2006)