The transition experience to breast cancer survivorship.

OBJECTIVES: To provide an overview of the concerns and needs of breast cancer survivors and describe approaches to quality patient-centered breast cancer survivorship care.

DATA SOURCES: Review of the literature including research reports, review papers, and clinically based articles.

CONCLUSION: Breast cancer survivors report unmet needs and desire information and support to manage symptoms, cope with uncertainty and fears of recurrence, and guidelines for healthy lifestyle behaviors. Individualized and tailored survivorship care is required to meet the needs of those with varied risk profiles and recovery patterns.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE: Nurses can be leaders in the assessment of needs after treatment, identification of those at higher risk for distress and ineffective coping, and in the delivery of high-quality care to breast cancer survivors.