Your cancer treatments are over; even if you're on hormone therapy, this page is for you. Follow-up is necessary, and usually involves several stages.
Follow-up procedures
They are explained to you during an end-of-treatment consultation, and are given to you in the form of a written document called the Personalized Post-Cancer Plan (PPAC).
This personalized post-cancer plan contains at least (content defined by the Institut National du Cancer) :
- A medical section, including a personalized monitoring plan (calendar, procedures and frequency of consultations and complementary examinations),
- A section on quality of life and access to supportive care,
- A social support component,
- Contacts: healthcare professionals, social workers, associations...
The aim is to provide comprehensive, multidisciplinary care to help you achieve the best possible physical, mental and social quality of life.
The link with your attending physician is essential; he or she is the care coordinator closest to your home, and the key contact with the cancer care facility that treated you.
Medical
The end-of-treatment consultation is a medical appointment with the specialist who coordinated your treatment (oncologist, surgeon, radiotherapist, etc.), scheduled as part of the cMYP. This is the time to summarize the treatment you have received and to organize your medical follow-up.
This medical follow-up can help identify and treat any late side-effects of treatment, as well as any sequelae linked to the disease. It can also help detect signs of relapse or the appearance of another cancer.
Your doctor will draw up a personalized monitoring plan with you, organizing a schedule of medical appointments: this is the medical component of the cMYP. This monitoring should alternate with the attending physician, and may also involve other specialists in charge of your pathology (gynecologist, urologist, dermatologist, etc.).
Quality of life and access to supportive care component
Supportive oncology care is just as important in the post-cancer period as it is during treatment. The end-of-treatment medical and/or paramedical consultation is the time to identify them, and don't hesitate to ask questions to better target the care you may need(*). These may include treatment of residual pain, nutritional support or psychological assistance.
Supportive care also takes into account the social difficulties associated with the disease, psychological suffering, disturbances to body image, intimacy and sex life, as well as support in resuming physical activity.
This care is offered free of charge in your care facility or by certain associations. When it is carried out by professionals in the community, it is at your own expense (except in the case of a consultation with a supportive care physician, such as an algologist or psychiatrist, or with a patient association).
Social support component
The social services department helps patients at every stage of their care. It offers you an active listening ear, and works with you and your loved ones to find solutions tailored to your needs.
Illness can lead to financial difficulties:
- reduced income due to work stoppage, reduced professional activity or disability, for example;
- financial expenses linked to non-reimbursed or poorly reimbursed treatments or accessories (bras adapted to breast prostheses after breast removal, dermatological products to combat the undesirable side effects of certain treatments, etc.);
- more difficult access to credit, even several years after the end of treatment(**)(***).
Working life is often temporarily put on hold, and returning to work often requires adaptations. (****)
Family life, social relationships and the ability to stay at home can be undermined.
Contact panel
Resources vary from one healthcare facility to another, and from one region to another. They may include healthcare professionals, social workers, patient support associations and their national or departmental delegations. Find out more from the doctors and carers who know you well, and from the information centers often found in healthcare establishments (patient centers, information and meeting areas, etc.).
Further information
*Opportune axis for the evolution of the oncology support care basket, INCa 2016