Cancer survivors worry about recurrence, but seldom think about their risk for new primaries.
PUBLISHED May 24, 2018
Brenda Denzler is a writer and editor living in North Carolina. She received her doctorate from Duke University and worked as an editor at UNC-Chapel Hill before she was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer in 2009. Since then, she has devoted a great deal of her time and energy to understanding and writing about cancer, cancer treatment and the impact of pre-existing PTSD on the ability of doctors to give and patients to receive medical treatment.
In 2018, more than 1.7 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed, according to the American Cancer Society. Of those, the National Cancer Institute says that 20 percent will be new primaries diagnosed in people who have already survived at least one previous bout with cancer. This year, I am apparently one of those 347,000 people.
I had a number of goals after my diagnosis with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) in 2009. One was to get rid of the cancer I had; another was to prevent a recurrence. I changed my diet and improved my nutrition. I got rid of my plastic storage containers and bought glass. I lost weight. I began a modest, but regular, exercise program. And I devoted a lot of time and attention in the years that followed to understanding breast cancer – and to a certain extent, all cancer – better. If the IBC came back, I was going to be loaded for bear and ready to rumble!
With all of this preparation to fight a recurrence, I was not prepared when, a few years ago, a tiny spot on my nose was diagnosed as an actinic keratosis – a pre-cancerous skin lesion. It had never seriously occurred to me that the IBC might not come back, but maybe something else would appear.
I had a number of goals after my diagnosis with inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) in 2009. One was to get rid of the cancer I had; another was to prevent a recurrence. I changed my diet and improved my nutrition. I got rid of my plastic storage containers and bought glass. I lost weight. I began a modest, but regular, exercise program. And I devoted a lot of time and attention in the years that followed to understanding breast cancer – and to a certain extent, all cancer – better. If the IBC came back, I was going to be loaded for bear and ready to rumble!
With all of this preparation to fight a recurrence, I was not prepared when, a few years ago, a tiny spot on my nose was diagnosed as an actinic keratosis – a pre-cancerous skin lesion. It had never seriously occurred to me that the IBC might not come back, but maybe something else would appear.
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