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Survivorship

Articles for those who have completed their cancer treatment.

Personal Growth After Cancer

Jeff Smith's prostate cancer diagnosis changed his perspective on life. After his treatment ended, he decided to leave behind all of those aspects of his life he didn’t love and start a new journey based on human connections.

The Transition From Patient to Survivor

The transition from cancer patient to cancer survivor is an occasion to celebrate, but also comes with questions and uncertainty. As more patients survive cancer, the health care field faces a new challenge: How to best manage the ongoing care of cancer survivors.

Prostate Cancer Patient Documents His Treatment

Faced with 42 days of radiation therapy to treat his prostate cancer, Rodney Dan Marolf decided on the very first visit to make the daunting process a little more personal.

Women’s sexual recovery after cancer

Sexual recovery during and after a women’s cancer diagnosis and treatment is as important as ensuring adequate nutrition, sleep and a healthy frame of mind. We spoke with Sallie Foley, LMSW, AASECT, co-author of "Sex Matters for Women," about sexual recovery after cancer for women who experience early menopause or menopause-like symptoms following cancer treatment.

Women and sexuality after bladder cancer

Recovering sexuality after bladder cancer can be difficult for women. Daniela Wittmann, Ph.D., LMSW, CST, and LaShon Day, PA-C, from the University of Michigan Department of Urology, were featured in a series of four webinars on this topic, sponsored by the Bladder Cancer Awareness Network.

A New Lease on Life after Esophageal Cancer Treatment

Read Mike MacFarlane's story of his diagnosis and treatment of esophageal cancer. As part of his treatment, Mike had a transhiatal esophagectomy, which made the size of his stomach much smaller.

Life After Treatment

Although Suzanne Bosek was happy to finish her treatment for breast cancer, she felt unexpectedly sad and lost when the daily connection she'd had with her medical team came to an end. In addition, she had a persistent fear of her cancer coming back.

Understanding Cancer Recurrence

No matter your diagnosis or treatment status, every person who has been diagnosed with cancer has a common concern: what if my cancer comes back? It's a large and complicated topic, due to the wide variety of ways cancer works in the body, as well as the unpredictability of the disease.

Reframing the Picture

Once cancer treatment ends, many patients report a lingering sense of guilt -- for the demands the disease placed on their families, for behaviors that they believe (mistakenly or not) may have caused the cancer, or even just simply for having survived when others didn't.

Restoring Intimacy

Erectile dysfunction is one of the long-term side effects of surgery to treat prostate cancer. But there are many ways to help men return to an active sex life. To help address concerns like this that men face during their recoveries, the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center in collaboration with the Department of Urology has established a Prostate Cancer Survivorship Clinic.

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