Breast Cancer Survivorship and Moving Forward

Catherine M. Alfano, PhD, is an international leader in cancer survivorship and cancer rehabilitation. Before joining Northwell, she served as the Vice President of Survivorship at the American Cancer Society where she provided vision and leadership to ACS research, programming, and policy efforts nationwide to improve the lives of cancer survivors. She previously served as the Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute Office of Cancer Survivorship where she created funding opportunity announcements to fill gaps in cancer survivorship and transdisciplinary research and administered a grant portfolio of rehabilitation, symptom management, and behavior change trials in cancer survivors. She has led work with the American Society of Clinical Oncology to help American healthcare systems develop risk/need-stratified survivorship care that focuses on helping patients self-manage their health and delivers care outside of clinic walls. She has held leadership positions as the Chair of the Cancer Special Interest Group of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and Co-Chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology Clinical Practice Guideline Panel: Diet, Physical Activity and Weight Management During Cancer Treatment. She has served on the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s Survivorship Committee and Energy Balance Sub-committee, and on the Research Task Force of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine’s Cancer Networking Group.

Regina Jacob, MD is the new Medical Director of Cancer Survivorship. She is devoted to patient care throughout the cancer continuum. She has specific clinical research interests in posttraumatic stress disorder and the social determinants of health, as they pertain to health, disease, and patient care. As a general internist, Dr. Jacob brings her passion for preventative care to the realm of malignancy, starting before a new diagnosis by implementing high-risk screening protocols. Dr. Jacob also envisions cancer survivorship care to incorporate co-management throughout the acute treatment phase and into the post-treatment surveillance and maintenance phase.