Follow-up after treatment for bone cancer
Follow-up care lets your healthcare team keep track of your health for a period of time after treatment ends. This important part of cancer care is often shared among cancer specialists and your family doctor. They will help you recover from treatment side effects and monitor you for any signs that the cancer has come back (recurred).
Follow-up care may not seem that important to you, especially if your treatment was long or very hard. You may find the idea of follow-up care stressful because it reminds you of your cancer experience or because you are worried about what a test might reveal. Talk to your healthcare team about how you feel and about why follow-up matters. Your healthcare team is there to help.
Schedule for follow-up visits
Don’t wait until your next scheduled appointment to report any new symptoms and symptoms that don’t go away. Tell your healthcare team if you have:
- any new lump or swelling
- pain or an increase in pain
- a cough that doesn’t get better or go away
- headaches that don’t go away
The chance that bone cancer will come back is greatest within 5 years, so you will need close follow-up during this time.
Follow-up visits for bone cancer are usually scheduled:
- every 3 months for 2 years
- then every 6 months for 3 years
- then every year
High-grade bone cancers are more likely to come back than low-grade cancer. So follow-up visits may be scheduled more often for high-grade bone cancers.
During follow-up visits
During a follow-up visit, your healthcare team will usually ask questions about the side effects of treatment and how you’re coping. They may also ask about your prosthesis, if you have one after surgery.
Your doctor may do a physical exam, including:
- looking at the area where the bone cancer was removed
- feeling the lymph nodes closest to where the tumour was
- checking for any swelling or infection in the area where a limb was removed (the stump)
- looking for any changes in how the leg, arm or hip moves
Tests are often part of follow-up care. You may have:
- a CT scan or chest x-ray to see if bone cancer has come back in the lung (lung metastases)
- a bone scan to look for any changes or tumours in the bones
- a complete blood count to check your general health
- blood chemistry tests to look for any changes to how your organs are working
If the cancer has come back, you and your healthcare team will discuss a plan for your treatment and care.
Find out more about follow-up
The following are questions that you can ask the healthcare team about follow-up after treatment for cancer. Choose the questions that fit your situation and add questions of your own. You may find it helpful to take the list to the next appointment and to write down the answers.
- What is the schedule for follow-up visits?
- How often is follow-up scheduled with the cancer specialist?
- Who is responsible for follow-up visits?
- What will happen at a follow-up visit?
- What tests are done on a regular basis? How often are they done?
- Are there any symptoms that should be reported right away? Who do I call?
- Who can help me cope with long-term side effects of treatment?
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