Background: Case management has been shown to be beneficial in phases of cancer screening and treatment.\nAfter treatment is completed, patients experience a loss of support due to reduced contact with medical\nprofessionals. Case management has the potential to offer continuity of care and ease re-entry to normal life. We\ntherefore aim to investigate the effect of case management on quality of life in early cancer survivors.\nMethods: Between 06/2010 and 07/2012, we randomized 95 patients who had just completed cancer treatment in\n11 cancer centres in the canton of Zurich, Switzerland. Patients in the case management group met with a case\nmanager at least three times over 12 months. Patient-reported outcomes were assessed after 3, 6 and 12 months\nusing the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT-G) scale, the Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care\n(PACIC) and the Self-Efficacy scale.\nResults: The change in FACT-G over 12 months was significantly greater in the case management group than in\nthe control group (16.2 (SE 2.0) vs. 9.2 (SE 1.5) points, P = 0.006). The PACIC score increased by 0.20 (SE 0.14) in the\ncase management group and decreased by 0.29 (SE 0.12) points in the control group (P = 0.009). Self-Efficacy\nincreased by 3.1 points (SE 0.9) in the case management group and by 0.7 (SE 0.8) points in the control group\n(P = 0.049).\nConclusions: Case management has the potential to improve quality of life, to ease re-entry to normal life and to\naddress needs for continuity of care in early cancer survivors.
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