# Survivorship in Tumors of the Sinonasal Tract: The Need for Improved Awareness, Patient Education, and an Emphasis on Multi-Disciplinary Care

## TL;DR

Sinonasal cancer survivors face long-term health issues and need better care and education to manage their physical, emotional, and financial challenges.

## Contribution

The paper emphasizes the need for multi-disciplinary survivorship care and patient involvement in planning it.

## Key findings

- Sinonasal cancer survivors experience long-term and late effects from treatment.
- Recurrence is common and can happen years after initial treatment.
- Comprehensive care involving patients and professionals is needed to address survivorship challenges.

## Abstract

Treatment for cancers of the sinuses and nose can lead to a wide range of long-term health problems, some lasting years or appearing much later. Recurrence of the cancer is also common, even after five years. These challenges can take a major toll on survivors physically, emotionally, and financially. As the cancer is rare, there is not much research on the long-term effects of treatment, and many survivors are not fully aware of what to expect. To address this, the authors reviewed existing studies to better understand these long-term effects. Their findings highlight the need for comprehensive, multi-disciplinary care for survivors and stress the importance of involving patients and the public in planning this care.

Sinonasal cancer treatment confers extensive and diverse sequela, which may persist for months to years after treatment or manifest as late effects. Furthermore, recurrences are common for some subtypes and may occur beyond five years post-treatment of the initial malignancy. Altogether, these can place a substantial physical, psychosocial, and economic burden on the survivor. Due to the rarity of these cancers, there are limited data to comprehensively elucidate the landscape of treatment-related morbidity in the long term. Furthermore, survivors may lack awareness of the entirety of possible adverse effects, which may exacerbate their long-term psychosocial well-being and quality of life, and delay attainment of appropriate care. To enable the development of patient education strategies and provide clinicians with up-to-date, evidence-based information on the long-term and/or late morbidity associated with sinonasal cancer treatment, a comprehensive review was performed. There is a wide range of issues that survivors face, both due to the sinonasal cancer itself and as a result of the treatment, highlighting the need for multidisciplinary survivorship care. Importantly, survivorship care will greatly benefit from patient and public involvement, alongside input from medical, surgical, and allied health professionals, to ensure that all aspects of care are addressed throughout the survivor journey.