What Happens After Treatment for Malignant Mesothelioma?

For some people with mesothelioma, treatment may remove or destroy the cancer. Completing treatment can be both stressful and exciting. You may be relieved to finish treatment, but find it hard not to worry about the cancer coming back. (When cancer comes back after treatment, it is called recurrence.) This is a very common concern in people who have had cancer.

It may take a while before your fears lessen. But it may help to know that many cancer survivors have learned to live with this uncertainty and are leading full lives. See Understanding Cancer Recurrence for more about this.

For many people, the mesothelioma may never go away completely. These people may get regular treatments with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or other therapies to help keep the cancer under control and help relieve symptoms from it. Learning to live with cancer that doesn’t go away can be difficult and very stressful. It has its own type of uncertainty. See Managing Cancer as a Chronic Illness talks more about this.

Follow-up care

If you have completed treatment, your doctors will still want to watch you closely. It’s very important to keep all follow-up appointments. During these visits, your doctors will ask about symptoms, examine you, and may order blood tests (such as the osteopontin or MesoMark tests) or imaging tests such as CT scans or PET scans. There is no widely agreed upon follow-up schedule for people with mesothelioma. Your doctor will most likely want to see you fairly often (at least every few months or so) at first. The time between visits may be extended if there are no problems.

Follow-up is needed to check for signs of cancer recurrence or spread, as well as possible side effects of certain treatments. This is a good time for you to ask your health care team any questions you might have and to discuss any concerns.

Almost any cancer treatment can have side effects. Some can last for weeks or months, but others can be permanent. Don’t hesitate to tell your cancer care team about any symptoms or side effects that bother you so they can help you manage them.

If the cancer does come back, further treatment will depend on where the cancer is, what treatments you’ve had before, and your health. For more on how recurrent cancer is treated, see Treatment of Mesothelioma Based on the Extent of the Cancer. For more general information on dealing with a recurrence, see Coping With Cancer Recurrence.

Seeing a new doctor

At some point after your treatment, you may be seeing a new doctor who doesn’t know anything about your medical history. It’s important to be able to give your new doctor the details of your diagnosis and treatment. Gathering these details soon after treatment may be easier than trying to get them at some point in the future. Make sure you have the following information handy (and always keep copies for yourself):

A copy of your pathology report(s) from any biopsies or surgeries
Copies of imaging tests (such as x-rays or CT or MRI scans), which can usually be stored digitally (on a DVD, etc.)
If you had surgery, a copy of your operative report(s)
If you stayed in the hospital, a copy of the discharge summary that the doctor wrote when you were sent home
If you had radiation therapy, a summary of the type and dose of radiation and when and where it was given
If you had chemotherapy, a list of your drugs, drug doses, and when you took them
The names and contact information of the doctors who treated your cancer

It’s also very important to keep health insurance. Tests and doctor visits cost a lot, and even though no one wants to think of their cancer coming back, this could happen. For more information, see Understanding Health Insurance.