Thanks to all the social workers who attended the Blood Cancer and Bone Marrow Transplant SIG meeting at the AOSW Annual Conference in Denver. Your dedication, knowledge and energy were amazing despite the 6:15 p.m. meeting time. We discussed many topics such as the practical processes of BMT programs, contraindications to transplant and financial barriers. One topic of great interest was survivorship care.

Survivorship for oncology patients is not always an easy transition. In fact, Opening Keynote Speaker Julia Rowland summarized survivorship best when she said, “It’s not over when it’s over.”

According to the National Cancer Institute, the number of people living beyond a cancer diagnosis reached nearly 14.5 million in 2014 and is expected to increase to almost 19 million by 2024. (Statistics at a Glance: The Burden of Cancer in the United States. [2017, June 28]). Retrieved from https:/www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/statistics.

The BMT SIG plans to explore the social work role in survivorship care as a forum on the AOSW Blood Cancer/BMT SIG page beginning in August 2017. The forum will address the physical, emotional and social challenges in survivorship. We will explore challenges associated with improving the quality of survivorship care and suggest survivorship programs that can be implemented going forward.

Although bone marrow transplant and its side effects (graft versus host disease) are unique to other cancer treatments, I believe survivorship can be similar for many oncology patients. Therefore, I would like to invite all oncology social workers interested in this topic to join our SIG and/or email me.

Lastly, I would like to welcome Melissa Sommers, LCSW, BMT/Oncology, Presbyterian-St Luke’s Medical Center, Denver, Colorado, as the new BMT SIG Co-Coordinator.