Your gift is 100% tax deductible
Español
PDFs by language
Our 24/7 cancer helpline provides information and answers for people dealing with cancer. We can connect you with trained cancer information specialists who will answer questions about a cancer diagnosis and provide guidance and a compassionate ear.
Chat live online
Select the Live Chat button at the bottom of the page
Call us at 1-800-227-2345
Available any time of day or night
Our highly trained specialists are available 24/7 via phone and on weekdays can assist through online chat. We connect patients, caregivers, and family members with essential services and resources at every step of their cancer journey. Ask us how you can get involved and support the fight against cancer. Some of the topics we can assist with include:
For medical questions, we encourage you to review our information with your doctor.
Your gift enables us to support people with cancer and fund research breakthroughs.
The amount must be greater than or equal to $5
Your gift is 100% tax deductible
Survivorship: During and After Treatment
Eating right, exercising, and seeing your cancer care team for follow-up visits are helpful ways to try to reduce your risk, but these efforts cannot completely keep cancer from recurring. There are other positive things you can do to be as healthy as possible.
After completing cancer treatment, many people decide to eat better in the hope that these changes will improve their chance for survival.
The American Cancer Society recommends that cancer survivors in stable health after treatment follow the same nutrition guidelines as those recommended for cancer prevention. It’s thought that the same factors that can increase cancer risk might also promote cancer recurrence after treatment. For example, research has suggested that the risk of breast cancer recurrence might be higher in women who have excess weight and don’t eat many fruits and vegetables. Prostate cancer recurrence risk might be higher in men who eat a lot of saturated fats.
In general, an adult should:
If you have excess weight, consider getting to and staying at a healthy weight. (Check with your cancer care team before starting an exercise program.)
Keeping a healthy weight may help to lower the risks of cancer recurrence
Several types of cancer are linked to alcohol intake. It is best not to drink, but if you do, women should have no more than 1 drink a day and men no more than 2 a day. The more you drink, the higher your cancer risk.
Sometimes people think taking certain vitamins, herbs, or other dietary supplements will give them an extra edge in preventing recurrence. Available research does not support this belief. In fact, some research has shown that supplements with high levels of single nutrients (greater than the Dietary Reference Intakes) may have unexpected harmful effects on cancer survivors.
Blood tests can show if your levels of certain vitamins are low. Based on these tests, your doctor might recommend supplements to raise levels of certain vitamins, but the evidence so far does not show that high vitamin levels help lower cancer risk. It’s best to talk with your cancer care team before starting any vitamin or other dietary supplement.
See Dietary Supplements for more information on vitamins and supplements.
A few studies have looked at the end result of physical activity or exercise on survival of people with cancer. Still, research has not yet shown if physical activity can help prevent cancer recurrence or slow the growth of disease. But studies have shown that regular physical activity of moderate to very active on most days of the week can reduce fear and depression of overall stress, improve mood, boost self- esteem, and reduce tiredness, nausea, pain, and diarrhea. (Moderate activities are those that make you breathe as hard as you would during a brisk walk. Vigorous activities make you use large muscle groups and make your heart beat faster, make you breathe faster and deeper, and also make you sweat.)
Talk to your cancer care team about an exercise plan that’s good for you. The American Cancer Society recommends cancer survivors:
A little physical movement is much better than none. Do something you enjoy. It helps if you start slowly and build up over time. In choosing a level of activity, it’s important to think about your physical abilities and what you've been able to do recently .
Talk to your cancer care team about an exercise plan that’s good for you. The American Cancer Society recommends cancer survivors:
There’s no way to guarantee that once you have completed cancer treatment the cancer will never come back. Although your doctor may say, “The cancer is gone” or “I think I removed all the cancer” or “I see no evidence of any cancer, there may be a chance that there are some cancer cells left in your body, even though they can’t be seen or found with any test used today. Over time, these cells might begin to grow again.
It’s easy to worry over every ache and pain if you’ve had cancer. Check with your cancer care team for a list of common signs of recurrence of your type of cancer.
There are only a few symptoms that could mean serious problems. If you have any of the problems listed below, tell your cancer care team.
Whenever you have a symptom, your first thought might be that your cancer has come back. Remember that there are illnesses and medical problems that have nothing to do with your previous cancer. You can still get colds, infections, arthritis, heart problems, and so on – just like anyone else. As with any illness, your primary care provider is the best person to find the cause of your symptoms. If you’re seeing a new doctor, be sure they know about your history of cancer and its treatment.
Some people find it very hard to not worry about cancer coming back and these thoughts interfere with daily life. Some handle these thoughts by distraction, or by focusing on what’s most important to them each day. Others take actions such as joining a peer support group or seeing a mental health professional.
Talk to your cancer care team or primary care team about your worries and concerns. Get help if you need it to deal with your emotions and live life to the fullest.
The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team
Our team is made up of doctors and oncology certified nurses with deep knowledge of cancer care as well as editors and translators with extensive experience in medical writing.
Gapstur SM, Bandera EV, Jernigan DH, et al. Alcohol and cancer: Existing knowledge and evidence gaps across the cancer continuum. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, 2022;31(1):5-10. doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-21-0934.
Pati S, Irfan W, Jameel A, Ahmed S, Shahid RK. Obesity and cancer: A current overview of epidemiology, pathogenesis, outcomes, and management. Cancers, 2023;15(2):485. doi:10.3390/cancers15020485.
Rock CL, Thomson C, Gansler T, et al. American Cancer Society guideline for diet and physical activity for cancer prevention. CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians. 2020;70(4). Accessed at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.3322/caac.21591 on August 23, 2023.
Key TJ, Bradbury KE, Perez-Cornago A, Sinha R, Tsilidis KK, Tsugane S. Diet, nutrition, and cancer risk: What do we know and what is the way forward? BMJ, 2020;368:m511. doi:10.1136/bmj.m511.
Last Revised: August 28, 2023
American Cancer Society medical information is copyrighted material. For reprint requests, please see our Content Usage Policy.
Sign up to stay up-to-date with news, valuable information, and ways to get involved with the American Cancer Society.
We fund research breakthroughs that save lives. Your year-end gift helps find new treatments for cancer.