At the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, patient advocate Mary Aalto leads a series of events featuring cancer survivors who are authors, artists, academics and motivational speakers. (USC Photo/Richard Carrasco)
USC cancer survivorship: A multidisciplinary effort
Teams of USC practitioners offer a broad range of support in areas including mental health, nutritional guidance, physical therapy, stress management and chronic pain.
As cancer research and breakthrough treatments help patients live longer, practitioners throughout USC’s health science schools and health system are guiding survivors from diagnosis to treatment to facing their post-care future. Through cancer survivorship programs, multidisciplinary teams of USC practitioners offer a broad range of support in areas beyond surgical and pharmacological intervention to help patients thrive, including mental health, nutritional guidance, physical therapy, stress management, chronic pain and much more. USC units and individuals involved include:
Keck Medicine of USC
USC Head and Neck Center’s patient support group creates a community for patients to share experiences and offer support to each other. The center also has a comprehensive survivorship program, where clinicians from social work to physical therapy to psychiatry work together to provide essential services and support for cancer patients.
The clinical breast cancer survivorship program aims to optimize the long-term mental and physical health of cancer survivors and help them manage financial and social stresses. The program includes interdisciplinary collaboration between clinicians to provide comprehensive oncology support and support groups for survivors and their caregivers.
Keck Medicine’s general Cancer Survivorship Program began in 2014, and provides support to cancer survivors and their loved ones through information and tools to improve and maintain physical health, emotional adjustment and overall well-being. Services include personalized care plans, fertility preservation and restoration, exercise and nutrition support, mental health and wellness support, and other resources.
Keck School of Medicine of USC
Daphne Stewart, clinical professor of medicine at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Keck School of Medicine and a medical oncologist with Keck Medicine, developed a clinical breast cancer survivorship program in 2023 for patients who had finished their primary therapy, including chemotherapy, surgery and reconstruction. Her team consists of a medical oncologist, a nurse practitioner who specializes in breast cancer, a social worker and a nurse navigator.
USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy*
Oncology Physical Therapy: The program empowers survivors of cancer to reclaim their lives through services that address fatigue, loss of motion, pre- and post-surgical rehabilitation, exercises to improve activities of daily life, reducing stress and improving mood, among others.
Golf and Cancer Survivorship: Researchers are studying how physical activities such as golfing can help survivors of prostate cancer maintain a healthy quality of life after treatment.
Post-Prostate Cancer Treatment: Physical therapists work with men experiencing erectile dysfunction and incontinence following a prostatectomy by providing treatment that strengthens the pelvic floor.
USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy*
A National Institutes of Health-funded grant is studying whether a customized self-management lifestyle program after colorectal cancer diagnosis empowers survivors to implement and maintain behavioral health and lifestyle recommendations like exercise, diet and alcohol use. The study is still in progress.
In collaboration with Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital, occupational therapists help cancer patients begin the rehabilitation process as soon as possible to reduce hospital length of stay and reduce the risk of hospital-acquired infection. Therapists also help patients develop specialized care plans that involve their social support systems to improve home safety by building functional skills and preparing for the transition back to life outside the hospital.
The department offers the Lifestyle Redesign for Oncology program, which provides a personalized plan to help patients develop healthy routines that include managing pain and energy levels; using adaptive equipment to manage physical limitations; establishing rest and relaxation habits for restorative sleep; learning health nutrition habits and more.
USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
Gerontology undergraduates have the opportunity to participate in research projects including the Cancer Research Education and Engagement program, designed to increase the translational cancer workforce and reduce cancer health disparities.
USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work
USC social workers are crucial members of many cancer survivorship programs across Keck Medicine, the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Keck School of Medicine. These experts help survivors navigate the many resources available through the health science schools and the health system for treatment and recovery, including mental health care for cancer survivors and their caregivers, treatment adherence and decision-making, insurance, housing and transportation.
USC social workers practice and conduct research in cancer-related services and issues including treatment adherence, survivorship, caregiver concerns and cancer-related health care policy.
USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Medication management: Patients rely on pharmacists to make sure that they’re using their medications to their full potential, answer questions and help prevent and mitigate drug toxicities.
Oncology-trained pharmacists play key roles in clinical trials, from enrollments to monitoring patients to making sure that patients are treated according to trial protocols.
USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center
Patient advocate Mary Aalto leads the Patient Perspective Series, a year-round program of lunchtime events featuring cancer survivors who are authors, artists, academics and motivational speakers.
The multi-ethnic Breast Cancer Survivorship Program offers services to address the needs of breast cancer survivors. The program also provides survivorship education and conducts research and is currently developing a new blood-based test to identify residual disease that may be undetected by mammograms or other forms of imaging.
*Note: The USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy and the USC Mrs. T.H. Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy are organizationally parts of the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC.
