Unexplained symptoms like pain can be especially troubling because there’s insufficient data as to how many early stagers go on to develop metastatic, or stage 4, disease.Ĭancer registries like the National Cancer Institute, or NCI’s, SEER program track stage at diagnosis and biomarkers and many other crucial details regarding people’s cancer diagnoses, but they do not capture data on metastatic recurrence. I try to keep in mind I’m still taking and Verzenio and the side effects of those drugs can mimic other things.” “But the aches and pains can be really frightening on a day-to-day basis. “It was normal and fine,” Rockinger said. Worried it might be a recurrence, she checked in with her oncologist, who suggested a CT scan. Recently, she noticed pain on her left side where the breast with cancer was removed and a new one reconstructed. “I can never figure out if it's just life or all the post-cancer meds and collateral damage.” “I get weird pains all the time and I’m constantly fatigued,” she said. Marina Rockinger, a 55-year-old radio personality and lobular breast cancer patient from Seattle, said she can totally relate, as she also struggles to pinpoint what’s causing symptoms. That pain turned out to be some kind of strain - too much work in the garden - but everything is a scare. “From my research, I knew prostate cancer can spread to bones, usually your ribs or lower back or hips. “Another day, I woke up with severe pain in my hips,” Gagnon said. But another lump months later - this one in his groin - caused more concern and eventually required surgery. It turned out to be an infection, easily cleared up with antibiotics. Six years out from his prostate cancer surgery, Gagnon said he’s had “a few recurrence scares,” including a red, painful lump he thought might be breast cancer. I'm lucky she hasn't changed her phone number.” “I must have called my doctor dozens of times over the years. “I worry about cancer recurrence every time I get a new ache or pain,” said Gogs Gagnon, a 63-year-old prostate cancer survivor from Courtenay, British Columbia. Worried about some strange new ache in your hip? Starting to stress out over that migraine? We turned to cancer patients and clinicians for answers on how to discern between pain and symptoms that are “normal” after treatment from those that need to be evaluated by your cancer surgeon, oncologist or primary care physician. What they often don’t know is how to tell one from the other. They also know cancer treatment can cause all manner of collateral damage. Most early-stagers know that even after systemic (or system-wide) treatments like chemotherapy and/or anti-hormones, their cancer can become metastatic, spreading from its original site to organs like the lungs, liver or brain, and triggering pain, shortness of breath, headaches and other symptoms. “In a lot of cases, it’s something else.” “I see patients with different types of cancer and a lot of the time, they want to know ‘Is this pain related to recurrence or is it something else?’” said Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center’s Medical Director of Cancer Rehabilitation Hanna Hunter, MD. Weird aches and pains abound after cancer treatment, making it hard for patients in remission to figure out whether they’re suffering a treatment side effect or experiencing the first whispers of a cancer recurrence. The only problem? Your body’s been through the mill.
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