Do You Know Why Some Cancers Come Back?

Distressing yet crucial information for the cancer survivors, the recurrence of this deadly disease is possible even after successful treatment.

While some cancers may return in the initial 5 years, others may take as long as a decade to reappear.

If you are also a cancer survivor or if you know someone who has gone through the terrible pain of cancer cures, then you should knowwhy some cancers come back. Gaining knowledge about the reasonswill not only help you in understanding the threats of cancer but also pave a way towards improving the situation of the cancer patients. So, read ahead and know more.

• Post-Surgery

There is no doubt that the surgeons will perform their best in making sure that all the primary cancer cells are removed. However, there may be some cancer cells that can be left behind. There might also be a chance that some of the cancer cells might have broken away and spread to other parts of the body before the operation. Such cells may grow in future and cause recurrence of cancer. Hence, it is important that patients must follow their doctor’s advice and should go for additional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy or biological therapy, which can kill the remaining cells left in thebody after surgery. 

• After Chemotherapy

You will be surprised as well as shocked to read this, but one can develop cancercells again even after chemotherapy. The drugs used in chemotherapy attack the cancer cells that are in the process of dividing into twocells. However, there may be some cells in the body that have not reached the stage of such fission and may not get affected by the chemotherapy. This is one of the reasons that chemotherapyis done at different intervals of time to kill as many cancer cells as possible.

• After Radiotherapy

Cancer cells can also come back even after a successful radiotherapy. During a radiotherapy, doctors make small breaks in the DNA of the cancer cells to restrict their growth. This further leads to the destruction of the cancer cells.However, there can be some cells that can recover at some point in future and start affecting the patient.

• After Biological Therapies

A biological therapy allows the doctors torestrict the growth of cancer cells.While some treatments may remove all the cancer cells, other can just reducethe growingcancercells which mightlook like that cancerhas been eliminated.However, it is possible that some cancer cells may develop later and grow into a tumour after the treatment.

• Resistance to Treatments

Another reason why some cancers come back is their resistance to treatment in some cases. It is a known fact that cancer cells are healthy cells that mutate to become cancerous. Such mutations also make them resistant to cancer drug treatments like chemotherapy, hormone therapy or biological therapies. Not only this, but some cancer cells show resistance to multiple drugs at the same time.

How to Cope?

Today, many people have fought cancer and are living happy lives. However, there are some who are still in fear of getting cancer back again.Thus, to be on a safer side, it isessential to ensure that one gets the treatment from a renowned cancer hospital in India like Max Healthcare where doctors make sure that there are no cancer cells left. Moreover, the doctors at best hospitals in India also empower their patients by informing them all about cancer, its treatments and recurrences as well.

Living in uncertainty can also be quite stressful for a cancer patient. Hence, it is important that one should seek guidance from a trained counsellor who can help them in coping with fear and worry.