AFTER CANCER: PREVENTING RECURRENT AND NEW CANCERS
What Can I Do to Prevent a Recurrence?
There are steps you can take to help prevent recurrence. Specific recommendations for you depend on the type of
cancer you had and your medical condition. Areas of potential intervention include
• diet modification
• exercise
• avoidance of exposure to cancer-causing environmental substances
• hormonal therapy
• medicines to prevent recurrence
• removal of precancerous lesions detected by aggressive surveillance
What Is Adjuvant Therapy?
Some types of cancer can be treated with additional therapy after you are in remission, in the hope of “mopping up” any leftover undetectable cancer cells. This additional therapy, called adjuvant therapy, is given with the expectation that it will decrease your chance of recurrence. It is at present available for a number of cancers that are notorious for recurrence.
For example, people with certain types of early breast cancer can be put into remission with surgery and radiation, but are advised to receive adjuvant chemotherapy (a few months of chemotherapy) to kill any cancer cells left anywhere in the body. When adjuvant therapy is an option, it should be considered seriously.
What Is Chemoprophylaxis?
Chemoprophylaxis is the use of medication to prevent а recurrence of cancer, prevent a second cancer that is different from a person’s past cancer, or prevent a first cancer in someone who has never had cancer. This is a new and very exciting area of cancer research. Trials are under way to explore medicines believed to offer protection. For example, large-scale studies are in progress to determine whether the use of tamoxifen can help prevent recur-rent breast cancer or a new breast cancer in the opposite breast, or j whether the use of anti-inflammatory medication can help prevent colon cancer.
There exists no medicine that will prevent all cancers, and it is unlikely that any will ever be found. However, we have every reason to expect to see the development of medicines that will help prevent certain types of cancer, especially in people at a known increased risk.
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