Cancer Survivors

More than 10 million cancer survivors will tell you there is life after cancer. This record number of those surviving evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of what used to be considered a death sentence is considered a great achievement of modern medicine. The term cancer survivor describes someone who has cancer or who is in remission. We don’t usually say a person is CURED of cancer since it occasionally returns as the same type or as a different type in someone who has already treated it. And while the ever-increasing numbers of survivors need to be celebrated, survivorship is not without its complications. Medical complications include after-effects of radiation, chemotherapy and surgery; psychological effects of labeling and depression; and the economic realities of paying for medical care, among others. As many as two-thirds of survivors will experience a late effect beyond five years from the diagnosis of the cancer. Survivors frequently have more than one late effect, with perhaps as many as a quarter of survivors experiencing one that is severe or life-threatening. Watch more video about cancer survivors or share your own survivor story on video with icyou.