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Remember to Keep Your Follow-up Appointments When Treatment is Over

James Metz, MD
Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania
Last Modified: November 1, 2001

Your cancer care continues even after you have completed your planned course of treatment. Any physician who participated actively in your care should continue to see you for routine check-ups. This may include your medical oncologist, radiation oncologist, and surgeon. Follow-up appointments will be frequent initially. As time passes, the intervals between visits will be lengthened at the discretion of your physicians. You should contact your physicians immediately if there is any change in your medical condition. If you move a great distance from the location in which you initially received treatment, it is important you find qualified physicians in your local area to continue your follow-up care. There are some very important reasons to keep your follow-up appointments. These include:

• Management of any side effects from your cancer treatments.
• Your physicians must follow you closely for the development of any late complications of treatments.
• Early detection of any cancer recurrence that may be amenable to treatment.
• Because any cancer patient is at increased risk of a second malignancy, is imperative that you are closely followed so that (if they occur) these cancers are identified at an early stage.
• Regular cancer screening at appropriate intervals.
• Detection of pre-malignant changes and the institution of treatment before cancer develops.
• Management of medications that may decrease the risk of cancer recurrence and second malignancy (i.e. Tamoxifen in Breast Cancer patients).
• Discussion of any new concerns that may arise.