For some people with ovarian cancer, treatment may remove or destroy the cancer. It can feel good to be done with treatment, but it can also be stressful. You may find that you now worry about the cancer coming back. This is a very common concern among those who have had cancer. (When cancer comes back, it is called a recurrence.)
It may take a while before your recovery begins to feel real and your fears are somewhat relieved. You can learn more about what to look for and how to learn to live with the chance of cancer coming back in Living With Uncertainty: The Fear of Cancer Recurrence.
For other people, the cancer never goes away completely. These women may be treated with chemotherapy (chemo) or other treatments on and off for years. Learning to live with cancer that does not go away can be hard and very stressful. It has its own type of uncertainty. Our document, When Cancer Doesn't Go Away, talks more about this.
Follow-up care
After your treatment is over, ongoing follow-up is very important. Follow-up for ovarian cancer usually includes a careful physical exam and blood tests for tumor markers that help spot a return of the cancer. For epithelial ovarian cancer, it is not clear that checking for CA-125 levels and treating you before you have symptoms will help you live longer. Treating based only on CA-125 levels and not symptoms may increase side effects of treatment, so it is important to discuss the pros and cons of checking CA-125 levels and quality of life with your doctor.
Although CA-125 is the tumor marker used most often to follow-up of women with epithelial ovarian cancers, others, such as CA 19-9, CEA, and HE-4, may be used as well.
Almost any cancer treatment can have side effects. Some may last for a few weeks or months, but others can be permanent. Please tell your cancer care team about any symptoms or side effects that bother you so they can help you manage them. Use this time to ask your health care team questions and discuss any concerns you might have.
It is also important to keep health insurance. While you hope your cancer won't come back, it could happen. If it does, you don't want to have to worry about paying for treatment. Should your cancer come back, our document When Your Cancer Comes Back: Cancer Recurrence helps you manage and cope with this phase of your treatment.
Seeing a new doctor
At some point after your cancer is found and treated, you may find yourself seeing a new doctor who doesn't know anything about your cancer. It is important that you be able to give your new doctor the exact details of your diagnosis and treatment. Make sure you have this information handy and always keep copies for yourself:
- A copy of your pathology report from any biopsy or surgery
- If you had surgery, a copy of your operative report
- If you were in the hospital, a copy of the discharge summary that the doctor wrote when you were sent home from the hospital
- If you had radiation treatment, a summary of the type and dose of radiation and when and where it was given
- If you had chemo (including hormone therapy or targeted therapy), a list of your drugs, drug doses, and when you took them
- Copies of x-rays and imaging tests (these can be put on a DVD)
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