Fol­low-up care for ovar­i­an cancer

Thanks to advances in med­i­cine, sur­vival rates are increas­ing, and can­cer can more and more often be viewed as a chron­ic dis­ease. In the west­ern world, more than 65% sur­vive can­cer for more than five years. In Ger­many alone there are around four mil­lion long-term sur­vivors after can­cer. Long-term sur­vivors increas­ing­ly include women with or after ovar­i­an can­cer: around a third of women become long-term sur­vivors. Despite the increas­ing num­ber of long-term sur­vivors, the top­ic of long-term sur­vival has received very lit­tle atten­tion in both the lay press and scientifically.

Ques­tion:

How does the after­care work?

Answer:

All women with ovar­i­an, fal­lop­i­an tube, or peri­toneal can­cer should receive fol­low-up care after com­plet­ing ther­a­py. This should be done on an out­pa­tient basis in close coop­er­a­tion between res­i­dent doc­tors and clin­ics. After­care is also under­stood as care and has the fol­low­ing goals:

• psy­cho-onco­log­i­cal support
• psy­choso­cial support
• Ini­ti­a­tion of reha­bil­i­ta­tion measures
• Fol­low-up diag­nos­tics (clin­ic)
• Pre­ven­tive care (e.g. breast cancer)
• Sup­port­ive treat­ments (e.g. for nau­sea or diarrhea)
• Ensur­ing and opti­miz­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tion (doc­tor-patient / doc­tor-doc­tor / patient-patient)
• Qual­i­ty control

After­care also includes inten­si­fied can­cer screen­ing. In par­tic­u­lar, patients with can­cer of the ovaries, fal­lop­i­an tubes and peri­toneum should reg­u­lar­ly, depend­ing on their tumor stage, H. Once a month, do a breast self-exam­i­na­tion and take part in the mam­mog­ra­phy screen­ing (X‑ray exam­i­na­tion of the breast tis­sue). These rec­om­men­da­tions are based, on the one hand, on the fact that breast can­cer is the most com­mon tumor in women any­way and, on the oth­er hand, on the fact that the risk of breast can­cer is slight­ly high­er for women with ovar­i­an, fal­lop­i­an tube and peri­toneum can­cer. How­ev­er, after­care always has to be adapt­ed to the patient’s indi­vid­ual sit­u­a­tion. The gen­er­al rec­om­men­da­tions are intend­ed only as a guide.

Since the risk of recur­rence of ovar­i­an, fal­lop­i­an tube and peri­toneum can­cer is par­tic­u­lar­ly high with­in the first three years after the oper­a­tion, the exam­i­na­tion inter­vals should be clos­er dur­ing this peri­od (ten to twelve weeks).

Then, depend­ing on the sit­u­a­tion, six-month inter­vals are dis­played. It is gen­er­al­ly rec­om­mend­ed that the exam­i­na­tions be car­ried out annu­al­ly after the fifth year. Rec­om­men­da­tions for the fol­low-up procedure:

• detailed med­ical history
• Ultra­sound (through the vagi­na and through the abdom­i­nal wall)
• gyne­co­log­i­cal exam­i­na­tion (includ­ing rec­tal examination)

It should be not­ed crit­i­cal­ly that the ben­e­fit of a rou­tine CA-125 con­trol for the sur­vival of the patients has not yet been proven by stud­ies. The deter­mi­na­tion of tumor mark­ers can also place con­sid­er­able psy­cho­log­i­cal stress on the patient. Dis­cuss the use of the tumor mark­er with your med­ical team!

Ques­tion:

How long is after­care necessary?

Answer:

Fol­low-up care for women with gyne­co­log­i­cal can­cer lasts five to ten years; after that, those affect­ed are usu­al­ly con­sid­ered cured. How­ev­er, more than half of these women still suf­fer from long-term side effects, such as B. Fatigue, incon­ti­nence and neu­ro­log­i­cal com­plaints that have a last­ing impact on your qual­i­ty of life. So far there is no con­tact point in Ger­many who sup­port affect­ed women in reduc­ing the long-term side effects of their can­cer treat­ment and improv­ing their qual­i­ty of life.

In the Sur­vivor­ship project, a con­sul­ta­tion hour for women with gyne­co­log­i­cal can­cer more than eight years ago is to be estab­lished and eval­u­at­ed at the Clin­ic for Gyne­col­o­gy with the Cen­ter for Onco­log­i­cal Surgery of the Char­ité. It should be exam­ined whether such a con­sul­ta­tion improves the qual­i­ty of life of the women con­cerned and is cost-effec­tive. In addi­tion, it will be inves­ti­gat­ed whether the long-term side effects of gyne­co­log­i­cal can­cer can be bet­ter rec­og­nized and treated.

More infor­ma­tion at: https://survivorship-clinic.de/

Ques­tion:

Can I go back to the sauna after the treat­ment is over?

Answer:

In prin­ci­ple there is noth­ing wrong with going to the sauna. It should be not­ed, how­ev­er, that there are no seri­ous car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­eases. You should there­fore dis­cuss this top­ic in detail with your treat­ing physi­cian. It is impor­tant that you are accom­pa­nied to the sauna so that you can get help quick­ly if nec­es­sary. The sauna ses­sions should be well dosed and not too intense.