If you haven't already, check out yesterday's issue of Parade, found in Sunday newspapers everywhere. This multi-feature story entitled "Cancer in America" begins with the topic addressed at the Cancer Survivorship Research conference in DC: "Living After Cancer."
Journalist Judith Newman highlights common problems that persist or first appear after completion of cancer treatment:
- Fatigue
- Pain
- Cognitive Impairment
- Infertility and sexual dysfunction
- Depression and anxiety
- Second cancers
The article's take-home messages are:
- For many survivors, the cancer experience continues long after they receive their final cancer treatment -- even decades later. "Cancer may leave your body, but it never leaves your mind."
- Significant research is being done to explore how to diagnose, prevent, delay and treat post-treatment problems.
- While waiting for better answers, clinicians would do better to work together to help patients create their best "new normal" after treatment, instead of encouraging patients to try to go back to their old "normal" before cancer.
To help you put faces to the efforts by scientists to help survivors, the two physicians photographed (Drs. Patti Ganz and Catherine Alfano) spoke at the conference.
At one of the conference presentations, I learned a frightening statistic about one particular aftereffect for which I am at increased risk. On my next post I'll discuss the impact on me of the news and how I'm responding.
Chronic insomnia seems to also be a common long-term effect of some cancer treatment--I hear about it a lot from breast cancer survivors--that doesn't seem to have appeared on researchers' radar yet.
Posted by: Finn | June 24, 2010 at 10:43 AM