I've often heard that if you survive without a return of the cancer for five years your chances of a return are statistically the same as if you'd never had it. It's not all that reassuring: after all, you've already copped for it once.

Is there any evidence for this? And when does the five years start? At diagnosis? At the start of treatment? After the end of treatment? Or later?

Real doctors on a local tv hospital programme (RPA) said that if you were still cancer-free after three years, they put the chanpagne in the fridge - and after five years they opened it!

It would be nice to have an excuse to celebrate!

Philip
(closer than not to five years from any of those dates)

I used to think it was from diagnosis, but the last time I asked my doctor he said it was from the end of treatment, i.e. the time I was cancer-free.

Today I saw my consultant and we discussed the very same thing. He said that after five years there was a slim chance only of cancer returning to the originally affected areas unless of course you indulge heavily in bad habits which might encourage the return of the disease. It would seem that we can assume to live a normal life span (whatever that is) and that we share the same risk as anybody else out there of contracting some form of cancer.
Don't forget......one in three of us in the western world will die from cancer. so the sad fact is....none of us are that far away from experiencing cancer anyway.

Hello Steve
Consultants at the hospital where I was treated give no 'clear of cancer' statements. They say it is unlikely to return on same site. We remain on annual checkups then have a choice:
continue annual check ups
be discharged
contact aa needed.
Twelve years since I had major surgery for throat cancer, I chose as and when needed to see a Consultant. I think the most important thing for any illness, is knowing that support is available (and where), even when not needed.
We can use the cancer experience to help those who follow.

Hi LMB

"We can use the cancer experience to help those who follow"

This is a good point as I have unwittingly tied myself in with my local community centre over the last few years to the point where I am now a trustee, and chair the monthly and annual meetings, as well as arranging fund-raising trips, organising Transport, and running awareness projects. Recently I was on Sky News preaching the benefits of healthier living (for mouth cancer awareness week) and so it goes on. Saying that, I do enjoy the involvement even though i'm back at work full time.
Before I had cancer I did'nt know the local centre existed but now i'm so wrapped up in it that it's almost a way of life and i've made some very sincere friends there.
I'm sure that all of us in some way or another "use the cancer experience to help those who follow" as we have the first hand experience of the pain and discomfort that goes with cancer and its treatment.
Here's to a healthy future for all of us.