Life after cancer

Many patients find themselves asking ‘what happens next?’ after they’ve finished their treatment

- DR PHILIPPA KAYE 

One in two of us will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in our lives. That’s half of the UK population – so it means all of us will be touched by it; whether being diagnosed personally, or knowing a family member, friend or work colleague who is affected. When someone is told they have cancer, their whole world changes. I know this on a personal level, as well as a professional one, as I was diagnosed with bowel cancer at the age of 39.

Cancer tries to take over your life as you are thrust into a world of hospital appointments and treatments. The good news? Most of us will survive our cancers to become cancer-free and, even if this isn’t possible, people with cancer are living for longer than ever.

But what happens after the treatments finish? You’ll move from seeing your medical team weekly, or even daily, to every few months or once a year for follow-up, until it stops completely. The focus is often on getting through treatment and recovery, but having cancer and its treatments can have ongoing physical and mental health issues.

The commonest cancer in the UK is breast cancer, so I’m going to mainly focus on what happens next after that treatment. It’s estimated that there are more than 500,000 breast cancer survivors in the UK, and this number is expected to increase to two million by 2040. Around 80% of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer will now survive for more than 10 years after their diagnosis.