Scientists from the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, the Netherlands; the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia; and St. Vincent's Hospital and the University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia, recently put together research about people being afraid that their cancer will return when they receive treatment customized just for them.
In an article posted online on the American Society of Clinical Oncology's Journal of Clinical Oncology, the scientists wrote that because medical professionals now know more about cancer and how the immune system can fight cancer and because they are able to customize treatments for each individual case, a significantly higher number of people are now surviving cancers that used to kill in higher numbers.
The scientists wrote that new treatments are causing people to wonder how long it is best for treatment to last and about doctors checking in on them following the treatment. The scientists also wrote that the new treatment types are causing new ways for medical professionals to tell those who have beaten cancer about the risk the cancer to come back.
The scientists added that despite medical professionals spending more time testing how well the new treatments affect people's ability to beat cancer, they have not spent a lot of time testing how these new treatments change the way patients think and the levels of their fears that the cancer will return.
