They are hopefully monitored quite often (2-3x a year ??) just as a precaution. I only go to the doctor once a year for my check-up (thankfully) but I do wonder if 2x/year might be more appropriate or at least get blood work done 2x/year.
Shannen Doherty dead @ 53
- Thread starter Escape08
- Start date
Your question is breathtaking for its ignorance. Cancer isn’t a “one and done“ treatment deal. no treatment is 100% effective. That’s why surgery is often followed up with both radiation and chemotherapy.
Cancer is not a single disease, or even a single manifestation of the same problem.
Cancer survival rates range from very low to relatively good, depending on when it was first diagnosed, and how well it responds to treatment, but how well it responds to treatment depends on the individual as well as the type of cancer.
Your question presupposes a cancer treatment effectiveness of 100%.
No such thing exists.
If your treatment was effective, E. G. Surgery, followed by radiation, followed by hormone suppression in the case of breast cancer, and you remain free of that same form of cancer for five years, your risk of the recurrence goes down, but it never goes down to zero.
There is evidence to suggest that the “five years in remission” as the standard for declaring the risk to be over (not exactly cure, but that’s how people hear it) should be replaced with seven years, or perhaps 10.
Your statement below shows that you still don’t understand what cancer is, or how it’s treated. “Treatment to eliminate it” - treatment simply does not work that way. There is no one treatment that works 100%.
Depending on the type of cancer, testing can be ongoing following the end of radiation therapy, chemotherapy, or other forms of treatment. The testing interval depends on the oncologist, the patient, the type of cancer, and the results of surgery, or previous treatments, and lots other factors.
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