Abstract

As cancer survival rates continue to improve, the need for effective survivorship care has become increasingly important. Treatment summaries, which provide a detailed record of a patient’s cancer diagnosis, treatment history, and follow-up care plan, play a crucial role in enhancing patient-centered communication and improving the quality of care for cancer survivors. This review explores the impact of treatment summaries on healthcare coordination, patient engagement, and long-term health outcomes. Treatment summaries facilitate seamless communication between oncology specialists, primary care providers, and patients, ensuring continuity of care and reducing gaps in follow-up management. They empower cancer survivors with a clearer understanding of their medical history, treatment effects, and necessary preventive measures, leading to improved adherence to follow-up care and healthier lifestyle choices. Additionally, these summaries help alleviate patient anxiety by providing structured and accessible health information, fostering greater trust and collaboration between patients and healthcare providers. Despite these advantages, challenges remain in the widespread implementation of treatment summaries. Variability in documentation, integration with electronic health records (EHR), provider workload, and patient health literacy are key barriers to their effective use. Addressing these challenges requires standardized documentation practices, digital health solutions, and provider education programs to optimize the benefits of treatment summaries in survivorship care. This review also highlights case studies of successful implementation in cancer care centers and discusses best practices for maximizing their impact. Findings suggest that when effectively utilized, treatment summaries contribute to a more coordinated, patient-centered approach to survivorship care, ultimately improving health outcomes and quality of life for cancer survivors. Moving forward, healthcare systems must prioritize policies that support the integration and accessibility of treatment summaries to ensure comprehensive, high-quality survivorship care.