ABSTRACT
An increasing proportion of cancer patients remains permanently tumor-free after primary care due to modern curative treatments. However, the life expectancy and quality of life deteriorate significantly in most relapsed cases in spite of different palliative therapies. To detect the early relapse in asymptomatic stage, patients undergo a pre-planned care process, targeting primarily their improved survival. Several studies and reviews have been conducted in recent decades to determine the optimal and rational frequency and methods of control examinations. The data of different follow-up strategies were analyzed from several perspectives. Recommended follow-up protocols differ significantly based on the origin, histological characteristics, stage, prognostic factors and typical sites of recurrences, such as local, "oligometastatic" or systemic relapse of tumors. In addition to the detection of recurrence, the importance of quality of life, monitoring of psychological status and psychosomatic complaints as well as the cost-effectiveness of protocols also came to the focus. Involving family doctors or qualified nurses in routine oncology follow-up may function as an alternative option to reducing the workload of specialists. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the use of telemedicine methods in the evaluation of examinations and follow-up strategies coming to the fore, while at the same time this made the re-evaluation of control care algorithms even more important. In this paper, we review the results of studies comparing the different follow-up strategies, highlighting which protocols help to optimize the use of health care capacity while preserving the survival chance of cancer patients in relapse. Orv Hetil. 2022; 163(43): 1704-1712.