Follow-up after treatment for ovarian 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 the 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:
- pain in the legs, lower back, pelvis or abdomen
- swelling of or pain in the abdomen
- change in bowel habits
- increasing bloating, nausea or vomiting
- weight loss
The chance that ovarian cancer will come back (recur) is greatest within 5 years, so you will need close follow-up during this time. You will also need close follow-up care for fallopian tube or primary peritoneal cancer, which are very similar to ovarian cancer. These cancers start in the same tissue as most ovarian cancers and are staged and treated the same way. But they are much rarer cancers.
Follow-up visits for ovarian, fallopian tube and primary peritoneal cancer are usually scheduled:
- every 3 to 4 months for the first 2 to 3 years after finishing initial treatment
- every 4 to 6 months for the next 3 years, and then once a year after that
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.
Your doctor may do a physical exam, including:
- a pelvic exam
- feeling the neck, abdomen and legs for swelling
- feeling the lymph nodes in the groin
Tests are often part of follow-up care. You may have:
Tumour marker tests
Tumour marker tests may be done to monitor how the treatment is working. Rising levels of a tumour marker may mean that the cancer has recurred. The doctor may order tests for different tumour markers for different types of cancer:
- cancer antigen 125 (CA125)
- alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)
- human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG or b-HCG)
- carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA)
Blood chemistry tests
Blood chemistry tests may be done to show how well certain organs are working. They can also be used to find abnormalities that may mean the cancer has spread to certain organs.
A
complete blood count (CBC)
may be done to check for
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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