Posted on: February 26, 2009

Back to Life

Cancer treatments may end, but the process of healing continues

By Dana Carman
CTW Features

It's easy to assume that when cancer treatment ends for those who have had to endure it, the reaction immediately following the last treatment would be immense relief. After all, to those of us who have watched someone we love experience cancer, it's a big relief when it's "over."

The reality, however, is different. For cancer patients, it's not over and, according to Dr. Lynne Wagner, director of the supportive oncology program at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, finishing treatment can be a relief tempered with anxiety but it can also cause some patients to be depressed. "It's somewhat individual, from a research perspective," Dr. Wagner says.

Christie Rigg, MFT, California-based breast cancer therapist and survivor herself, notes that when someone is diagnosed with cancer, "Life becomes incredibly busy. It's like your job is dealing with the cancer," she says. "I said cancer should come with a secretary-you've got appointments, surgeries, chemo, biopsies, bills-and everything else needs to keep going." As a result, she says, a lot of the women she works with don't begin to process their emotions until treatment ends and those feelings bubble up.

Additionally, with all those appointments comes a built-in support system that cuts off cold turkey, says Dr. Wagner. "You're getting good support from the medical team and coming in every day," she says. "Then you transition from regular contact and a lot of patients are left out on their own." Further, there's the follow-up looming out there and between treatment and that appointment there can be a sense of helplessness because patients are no longer "actively" fighting cancer. Fear of the unknown results of all this treatment also compounds these other emotions.

Both Rigg and Dr. Wagner stress to the patients they work with that feeling any of this and more is completely normal. Just as each cancer and treatment plan is individual, so is the range of emotions one may feel about finishing and attempting to resume "normal" life. Rigg finds that women who share their stories in groups realize quickly they are not alone in these feelings.

Reconnecting with social networks, exercise, and taking stock of priorities going forward can all help patients during this transition. Making healthy lifestyle choices can also empower patients to feel more "in control" of their situations during this time. Dr. Wagner says advocacy work can also be helpful, whether fundraising, counseling or volunteering with a cancer organization.

It's important to realize that cancer is a life-changing event and because of that, patients are "really going through a grieving process," Dr. Wagner says. "Part of that loss is that the view of themselves has changed-their view of a vibrant healthy person and they're reminded of mortality. That's quite a loss."

The National Cancer Institute has a comprehensive booklet online on just this topic, which can be found at www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/life-after-treatment.