Follow-up strategies for women treated for early breast cancer

Follow-up programs based on regular physical examinations and yearly mammography alone appear to be as effective as more intensive approaches based on regular performance of laboratory and instrumental tests in terms of timeliness of recurrence detection, overall survival and quality of life. In one RCT, follow up care performed by general practitioners had comparable effectiveness to that delivered by hospital based specialists in terms of quality of life and time to detection of distant metastases.