Primary care physicians in the United States see themselves as well placed to care for patients who have a history of breast cancer alongside multiple chronic conditions, but unclear division of responsibilities with oncology teams and a shortage of usable clinical information are holding that care back.
The study formed part of a larger project funded by the National Cancer Institute. The researchers iteratively recruited a purposeful sample of eight primary care physicians from diverse practice settings and conducted semi-structured interviews. To ground the conversations in a realistic clinical scenario, participants were presented with a vignette describing a hypothetical patient with several chronic conditions and a prior breast cancer diagnosis. Interviewers then asked how the physicians would manage that patient’s care, how breast cancer survivorship recommendations could be integrated into routine practice, and what solutions might address the obstacles they identified.
Analysis followed an editing organizing style, a qualitative approach in which researchers code transcripts and group them into overarching patterns and themes. Across all eight interviews, four consistent themes emerged about how these physicians view their role in caring for patients with a history of cancer.
The first theme was that primary care physicians perceive their role as providing whole-person, patient-centered care. Rather than focusing narrowly on cancer surveillance, they described their contribution in terms of managing the patient as a complete individual, taking into account the interplay between a history of breast cancer and other chronic conditions such as those presented in the vignette. This framing positions primary care as the natural home for coordinating care that spans multiple health problems at once.
The second theme was more reassuring for advocates of survivorship care in primary care settings: most breast cancer survivorship recommendations fall within the scope of primary care practice. The physicians interviewed did not view the clinical content of survivorship guidelines as foreign to their work.
The third theme, however, exposed a structural problem. The physicians reported that the delineation of roles and responsibilities in the care of cancer survivors is unclear. When a patient moves between oncology and primary care, neither side has a settled understanding of who is responsible for which aspects of follow-up.
The fourth theme concerned information flow. Primary care physicians said they rarely receive actionable and accessible information from oncology teams. Instead, they must piece together information from multiple sources, such as records and reports, to make informed decisions about a patient’s care. The study’s authors note that this assembly work is a burden that complicates the application of survivorship recommendations at the point of care.
Taken together, the findings suggest that the barrier to integrating breast cancer survivorship care into primary care is not primarily a matter of clinical capability or willingness. The physicians interviewed considered most survivorship recommendations to be within their scope, and they embraced a whole-person approach that fits the needs of patients with a cancer history and multiple chronic conditions. What hinders incorporation of some aspects of survivorship into primary care practices, the authors conclude, is poor delineation of roles and the lack of actionable and accessible information.
The study points to possible remedies. The authors conclude that local resources and actionable information may support better integration of survivorship care in primary care.
The study has clear limitations that readers should keep in mind. It involved only eight primary care physicians in the United States, recruited through purposeful sampling, and relied on a clinical vignette of a hypothetical patient rather than the care of actual patients. Qualitative interviews of this kind are designed to surface perspectives and themes, not to measure how common those views are across the primary care workforce or to test whether any particular intervention improves outcomes. The published version is also an early-release, peer-reviewed accepted manuscript that remains subject to further edits before the final version of record. Even so, the work offers a grounded account of what primary care physicians say they need, clearer roles and better information, if survivorship care for patients with breast cancer and complex comorbidities is to become a routine part of primary care practice.
Subject of Research: Primary care physicians' perspectives on caring for patients with a history of breast cancer and multiple chronic conditions
Article Title: Primary care physicians on caring for patients with complex comorbidities and history of breast cancer
Article References: Bates, B. A., Hemler, J. R., Howard, J., Mikesell, L., Fadem, S., Kurtzman, R., Ferrante, J. M., O’Malley, D., Hudson, S. V., & Crabtree, B. F. (2026). Primary care physicians on caring for patients with complex comorbidities and history of breast cancer. BMC Primary Care. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-026-03575-0
Image Credits: AI Generated
DOI: 10.1186/s12875-026-03575-0
Keywords: primary care, breast cancer, cancer survivorship, comorbidities, qualitative interviews, care coordination, oncology communication, patient-centered care, chronic conditions, survivorship recommendations, Primary, care
News Source: Nathaniel Bowman. (October 29, 2026). Primary care physicians describe unclear roles and missing information in breast cancer survivorship care. Scienmag.
