Life After Cancer

According to the American Association for Cancer Research, there are over 13 million cancer survivors living in the US today. That number is supposed to grow to 18 million by 2022. The CDC found that about half are women  and one third are younger than 65 years old. For younger survivors, the question of fertility is an important issue.

Today's NY Timess hightlights this concern.

... At one time, oncologists rarely worried about the reproductive side effects of treatment because so few pediatric patients survived. But as more children with cancer live into adulthood — death rates have plunged 66 percent since the 1970s — the landscape of fertility has changed. Doctors are offering patients preservation options at the time of diagnosis, and researchers are finding that for many survivors, the odds of overcoming clinical infertility are surprisingly good.

Last month, a large study in The Lancet Oncology found that about two thirds of female survivors who sought out fertility treatments as adults ultimately became pregnant — a rate of success that mirrored the rate among other infertile women. 

Women with newly diagnosed cancers need to ask about fertility-sparing options, now more available than ever. Doctors, in turn, need to broach the subject with their patients. Cancer does not have to mean the "End of the Line." There is life after cancer.

Oh yes, for one more week, September is Gynecologic Cancer Month.