Sarah Brown and Diana Greenfield report on a service evaluation that highlighted the need for holistic, anticipatory care for people living with and beyond cancer

With rising survival rates, there is emerging awareness of the long-term and late effects of cancer and its treatment. It is becoming increasingly apparent that those living with and beyond the disease require comprehensive health management including physical, mental and social support. This service evaluation aimed to describe the efficacy of the nurse-led late effects screening clinic at Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield; it did this by determining detection rates of health problems post-cancer treatment as a result of targeted, individualised late effects screening guided by treatment summaries. Data were collected retrospectively from the medical records of 64 patients, most of whom had haematological malignancies (55/64, 86%), who attended the clinic for the first time between April 2011 and March 2012. Data were inputted into the SPSS Statistics software package for descriptive analysis. Routine screening identified 122 health problems in 64 patients, and 73 referrals to further care were made, highlighting the importance of holistic, anticipatory care and targeted surveillance.