One of the consequences of progress in cancer diagnosis and treatment is the increase in survival in recent decades in Europe and Spain. The number of new cancer cases is increasing due to an ageing population and the number of survivors will grow. Survival, among all cancers, is estimated to be 47.3% in men and 55.8% in women1 and survival for high-incidence tumors, such as colorectal, breast and prostate cancer, will be greater than 50%, 86% and 71.4%, respectively in 2012. The demographic characteristics of the cancer population determine that there will be 26 million survivors by 2040, most will be between 60, 70 and 80 years old. This is a pressure on health systems and shows the limitations to meet them in the current monitoring model. Care priorities should be identified, organizational models of clinical-health management reviewed; propose a frame of reference, integrate care levels, including primary care, to evaluate the best care options for these patients in our healthcare environment. The knowledge available about the health of long-evolving survivors is still limited. Current information comes from studies on breast cancer survival, due to its prolonged survival, in other high-prevalence tumors, long-term physical, functional, psychological or sociocultural sequelae have not yet been sufficiently studied.
