Advantages of a specialized return to work consultation after cancer

Background > To help patients suffering from cancer to return to work, a multidisciplinary medico-psycho-social consultation after cancer was created in Upper Normandy in 2006. Aims > To describe the organization and the experiences of the consultation. Methods > The 3 actors of the consultation explained their point of view Characteristics of the consultants, advises given to them and becoming of the patients were analysed by studying medical observations and questionnaires given to patients. Results > Hundred and fifty patients, principally suffering from breast cancer (64%), consulted for returning to their current job (3/4) or for finding a new job (1/4). The return to work rate was 64% (95% CI = 54-73), in a mean time of 7 months after the first "return to work" consultation. Ninety-three percent of the patients found that this consultation was useful. This consultation offers a transition between the hospital and the work environments, it guides patients to the good return to work actors, it gives specific advices about cancer and return to work. It gives specialised advices to workers who usually have not.