Connect
← Return to What questions to ask after the 3rd chemo?
Discussion
What questions to ask after the 3rd chemo?
Gynecologic Cancers | Last Active: Aug 3 9:03am | Replies (10)Comment receiving replies
What is my prognosis? How likely am I to survive five years?
What kind of symptoms do I need to watch out for?
When do I get the next imaging? How often? What kind (CT, PET, MRI)?
Has my CA-125 come down? How often do you check it?
Will I be on maintenance therapy? If so, what kind? If not, why not?
When asked about survival odds, some doctors suddenly get very vague, and say things like, “Everyone is different,” or “I don’t like to put a number on it.” I had to pin mine down by saying, “I need to know in order to make arrangements if necessary.” I would spend my time very differently if I knew I only had a couple of years to live.
Some patients don’t want to know their odds of survival. I certainly understand and respect that. But if you do want to know, I recommend asking.
Replies to "What is my prognosis? How likely am I to survive five years? What kind of symptoms..."
@lathomasmd Thank you for coming up with these questions for @charlotte12. I will also add:
1. How often will I see you (the oncologist) during my course of chemotherapy?
2. What will be my active surveillance schedule after my chemotherapy is completed? How often will I be seen?
3. I'd rephrase the survival question this way - what is the 5-year survival rate for my type of cancer and now going into my third chemotherapy treatment? In this way you are asking not only about yourself but rather asking the question about what your oncologist knows from the research literature about 5 year survival rate. (What we often see in our own searches is very out-of-date).
the question on survival odds for my cancer was not answered and as you suggested he was
evasive- I will reuse the questions when I finish my 6th treatment. He did say my prognosis is excellent.
Connect
thank you for your helpful response, I will use your questions, I can let you know how
he reacted when asked about survival rate. I did not ask this question after my surgery, instead
kept looking for answers on the web.