r/cancer

I was diagnosed with stage 4 esphogal cancer that has spread to some lymph nodes on January 2nd 2025. I was set up with an amazing team. I went through 7 months of treatment with chemo every 3 weeks which included a 5 day chemo pump. Blood work every Friday, and then the treatments every 3 weeks on Mondays. I have fought, and so far doing great. I am off chemo. On my last CT scan I had no tumors showing on scans. I go ever few weeks still for meds for maintenance. I hope every one of you patient or caregiver fights and beats this disease. I have nothing but love and support for every single one of you. Fight on, Fight on, Fuck Cancer.

Hi everyone. I've posted a few times before but could really use some support and if there is anyone else in my situation, I'd especially love to hear from them.

tl;dr: I had duodenal cancer two years ago, was diagnosed with endometrial cancer last month, and just got a diagnosis for suspected thyroid cancer. WTF is happening with my body.

More details:

Two years ago in June I was diagnosed with a rare duodenal cancer. I had five rounds of neoadjuvant FOLFOX and then a Whipple, performed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester in October 2024. I had the best possible recovery from a Whipple and have been NED since then and just shifted from scans every three months to scans every six months.

In March, I woke up one day with double vision. At the ER, I had a number of scans done and they flagged a nodule in my neck. I had ultrasounds and a biopsy done on that in June and the endocrinologist was not very concerned.

In June, I was diagnosed with endometrial cancer after having heavy menstrual bleeding. I am scheduled for a hysterectomy and BSO (ovaries & Fallopian tubes) at Mayo the day after tomorrow.

And I just got the results from my thyroid biopsy and it came back as "suspected malignancy." My endocrinologist is reaching out to Mayo to get a recommendation for a surgeon.

My head is spinning. I don't know what to think! It feels like everything is falling apart. Each of my cancers has good prognosis, but what about having all of them?? And two at the same time? (Or, worse: although all the doctors tell me that metastatis to my neck from either of my other cancers is unlikely, it could be true -- I guess we won't know for sure until the surgery to remove the neck mass??)

This all started out at the beginning of April with an inconclusive smear test. In-between then and now I have had repeat smear, colposcopy, cell scraping, MRI, told it was cancer, then a LLetz and pet CT scan.

I got a phone call on Friday from the nurse at 5 to 5. Unfortunately I was cooking dinner for my kids and didn't see it. Tried to phone back. Lines shut.

Spent all weekend stressing.

Finally got a call from the nurse this morning. She asked me what I knew 😂 I replied that I had cancer but I hadn't spoken to anyone in 3 weeks. She said that wasn't good but she could set a meeting up to go through everything. I asked for it to be on the phone. She then decided she could tell me some details but couldn't get all of my notes!

So only positive is that it hasn't spread to anywhere higher up and looks like it's just in my pelvis.

More lymph nodes lit up either side of the tumour but she couldn't say how many. I asked whether that could be from my LLetz or infection (C-section scar infected with mrsa!) and she said they would not tell me that. She also said that from the LLetz that it was spread to my vagina. Presuming that is the cells and not the tumour as that is high up. Now I am panicking about the vagina involvement and what that means? I did ask but she said it didn't change my stage and that was it.

She then said I could expect a meeting with the oncologist to go through everything. Didn't know when that would be! Great!

I asked about the interlace protocol as I know the hospital I was at was part of the trial. She said she couldn't give me any other information apart from what the normal treatment is.

These nurses are meant to be the go to for information and I feel she couldn't really tell me anything 😞

She asked if I had any questions and I was silent as it was all going round in my head and then she said okay well you have our number if you need anything and put the phone down.

I was meant to be referred to the mental health services. They were meant to put in a referral for post partum help. They were also meant to be looking at help with childcare but I haven't heard anything.

To top it off we are meant to be going on holiday next week. Don't know whether to cancel it and hope my appointment comes through and save the holiday days so my husband can take more time off when I am in treatment, or say fuck it, this is all shit and being on a beach might make things a bit more bearable!

Anyone here from UK? That possible has any ideas of what it all entails?

For me it’s when people say I (people telling me) “beat” cancer. I can’t stand it, I didn’t beat shit, I am still fighting every fuckin day with the physical and mental symptoms from treatment that will never go away. Another thing that bothers me is the amount that “cancer” is used by others to describe diminutive hardships. ie. “X is like cancer”. I know I can’t control what people say and a lot of people are ignorant when it comes cancer. I myself was before I got sick, but it irks me enough to make a post about it I suppose.

The biggest thing I absolutely can’t stand is those that deliberately try to use their cancer to get internet clout, free things, or pity. I understand treatment costs a lot of money, in total mine cost 3.5 million. I was blessed enough to have excellent insurance that paid for the majority of it although I still owe a solid 5 figure sum. Those who need go fund me’s or donations I have no problem with. It’s the people that don’t need it that beg that really pisses me off.

What are things that irk you or your pet peeves when it comes to others, be it family and friends or strangers, or media or any pet peeve you might have when it comes to cancer?

Disclaimer* if you say you beat cancer I have no problem with it at all, it’s just not something I say myself. I am not referring to survivors or those sick. I am referring to others telling me “you beat cancer”.

I don’t really know how to say this, but things have been hard lately. Every day feels a little heavier, yet I know it doesn’t even come close to what my mom has been going through since she was diagnosed with bone cancer secondary to breast cancer.

While everything has been emotionally, physically and financially draining, seeing her in so much pain is the hardest part. There are nights when I cry without anyone knowing, asking God to give her strength and praying that she’ll get better. I can’t imagine my life without my mom. No child ever wants to think about losing a parent, but it’s difficult to stop my mind from wandering to places I don’t want it to go.

I don’t usually share personal things online, and I rarely talk about what I’m feeling. The truth is, I don’t really have anyone to open up to, so I’m writing this instead.

As scared as I am, I still choose to hold on to hope. Deep down, I believe she’ll get through this. I believe she’ll overcome everything that’s in front of her, and I know I have to stay strong for her just as she’s always been strong for me.

To anyone who is fighting cancer, or watching someone they love fight it, I’m praying for you too. This kind of battle can feel incredibly lonely, but none of us are truly alone. Even on the days when fear is louder than hope, I’m choosing to believe that better days are still ahead.

9 years now since I got diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Did 5 different treatments, relapsed 3 times, had heart failure in-between, got pneumonia and admitted to the ICU. About to go through another chemo before getting stem cell transplant.

I'm just too tired at this point, when does it end?

My boyfriend has toungue cancer with metastasis to his lymph nodes in his neck only neck from what it seems like. Of course he’s worried. But I tell him to try to see the bright side, that it’s not in his lungs or liver. Which is where it can get dangerous. I know he’s going to okay. But he’s worried. How do I cheer him up. The situation has me thinking a little crazy too..

I don't think I'm gonna meet my goals. (Which are simple. I want to raise my teens and outlive my dog. That's all. At least get them to a better place.)

I don't have health coverage. I've tried.

I weighed myself this morning. Grim.

I'm not afraid to die. I just don't want anyone to have to explain to my dog where I am, or ask anyone else to take the kids to band camp. I don't know how to do this. I don't need it for me. I need it for my babies and my dog and my mom.

Edit: As much as I appreciate the information, yes. I have gone through social workers, applications to state services, etc.

Hi everyone,

I’m a 27M looking for some advice and to hear from anyone who’s been through something similar.

I was diagnosed with Classic Hodgkin lymphoma (CHL) in June last year with a 14 cm bulky mediastinal mass. I completed 6 cycles of ABVD. My interim PET scan showed a Deauville score of 3, so things initially looked promising. Unfortunately, my end-of-treatment PET scan showed a Deauville score of 5, with two metabolically active spots remaining in the mediastinal mass.

I then started salvage treatment with brentuximab vedotin + Bendamustin. After 4 cycles, I had another PET scan yesterday.

The good news is that one of the two active spots has completely resolved (Deauville 1). However, the other spot is still present with a Deauville score of 4. So while there has been a partial response, it seems the disease has not been completely eradicated.

I live in a country where treatment options are limited. After a brief discussion, one of my doctors suggested either:

* Two more cycles of a more intensive regimen such as ESHAP combined with brentuximab, or
* Two more cycles of brentuximab + Bendamustin

And then Radiotherapy to mediastinum mass followed by an Autologous stem cell transplant if Im eligible

I’m devastated. I never imagined I could be refractory to both first-line and salvage treatment, and I’m struggling to process everything.

Has anyone else had persistent PET-positive disease after salvage therapy and still gone on to achieve remission? If so, what treatment ultimately worked for you?

I’m also scared that I’m running out of options. Is it too early to be thinking about palliative care, or are there still realistic curative approaches in situations like this?

I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has been through something similar. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Hi, yeah, as the title says, I have been diagnosed with tongue cancer at an age when the chances to get it are so slim they are practically nonexistent. I'm not sure why I'm writing this, probably just to get this off my chest and maybe ask for what I should expect?

I've had a weird, white patch on my tongue ever since around January 2025 or so. Honestly, I could have had it for longer than that, since it was on the side and not visible unless I angled my tongue in a particular way. It didn't hurt whatsoever, so I had nearly no concerns at all.

Neither did my orthodontist when I brought it up during a visit, since after getting my braces removed I had to go to those regular check-ups (I still do). The doctor said with complete certainty that it's just some inflammation from a sharp tooth of mine at the back of my jaw, so they filed the tooth down a bit.

The pattern repeated one or two more times; the patch didn't disappear, so they filed the tooth again and left it at that, thinking that since I'm generally healthy and don't smoke, not to mention my young age, it was impossible for me to have developed a tumor.

Once I had my scheduled visit at the dentist, he also seemed confident that everything was fine, but just to be sure, he directed me to an orthodontic surgeon, who, also thinking it couldn't be anything too strange, prescribed me an antibiotic to see whether it could be something bacterial.

At that point, the white patch was starting to disappear and instead there was a small swelling with a dent from my tooth. The doctor figured the issue came from the teeth on that side of my jaw being slightly tilted inwards due to the growth of my wisdom teeth.

The thing began hurting, and the pain kept getting slightly worse gradually, and by the next visit, the doctor decided to get a sample of it and send it to the lab just to be sure, and, as you could probably guess, it turned out to be an early-stage malicious tumor.

I was instantly directed to the best hospital in the area and after a couple of inspections, scans and chats with different doctors, I got my surgery scheduled.

I would get a piece of my tongue (approximately 2cm length- and width-wise) removed and replaced with tissue from, most likely, my thigh. I would also get my lymph nodes removed on both sides of my neck and potentially they would have to basically cut open a hole in my throat to get to the airway in case my tongue would swell too much during the surgery to allow breathing.

My surgery is in 3 days, and I'm going to stay the previous day entirely at the hospital. Afterwards I'm going to stay there for 7-10 days, and, frankly, I'm not exactly sure what to expect. My doctors did say that the time at the hospital will basically not be a great time, but that I will feel better gradually with every day, and people's stories I read seem to agree with that. But I also saw people say that regaining speech took them much, much longer than my doctors ever insinuated.

Is it my doctors trying to keep me from panicking or is it possible that my recovery will go smoother due to my circumstances? Thanks in advance for any answers.

A year ago I was sitting at my own desk when I found out I probably had cancer again.
There was no doctor in the room. No one was there at all. I had pulled up a radiology report from a scan I had done for something else, and I read it the way I have learned to read these things. Fast. Looking for the one line that matters. I found it near the bottom. A small mass on my right kidney. Mixed solid and cystic. About 1.4 centimeters. An outside read called it Bosniak III, the borderline category, the one where about half turn out to be cancer and half do not.

I have been a cancer patient long enough to know how the first hour goes. You read the words. You look up what they mean. You understand in the first thirty seconds that the news is bad, and then your body takes a minute to catch up. I sat there. I did not move. The thought that kept coming back was not dramatic. It was three words. Always fighting this.
I have been fighting this since I was sixteen.
In 1993, I had testicular cancer. I was a kid. I had four rounds of cisplatin and etoposide at Memorial Sloan Kettering, and a long abdominal surgery, and I lived. That treatment did exactly what it was supposed to do. I want to be clear about that, because none of what follows is a complaint about the medicine that saved me. The medicine worked. I am here because of it.
But platinum chemotherapy leaves a long shadow. The drugs that cure you in your teens are linked to a higher risk of other cancers and of heart disease decades later. Not the year after. Twenty, thirty years out, long after anyone is still watching.
That is the part almost no one is told.
Here is what should bother all of us. The formal follow-up for a testicular cancer survivor usually ends at five years. Five years clear and you are discharged, cured, sent back to your life. But the most serious late effects of the treatment do not arrive at five years. They arrive at fifteen, and twenty, and thirty. The science on this is neither new nor fringe. Some of it was built by the same doctors who treated me. The knowledge exists. It just stops at the exam room door.
I learned how true that was this spring.
When the kidney mass showed up, I did what you do. I got it imaged again. One cancer center read it one way: the gray zone, worth watching. Another center read the same scan and called it more than ninety percent likely to be cancer. Same images. Same kidney. Two different answers. If you have ever held two reports that did not agree, you know exactly how that feels. You are the one who has to decide which one to believe, and you never went to medical school.
The first plan was to watch it. Scan every few months and see what it did. I went along with that. It kept growing. From 1.4 to 1.7 to about 1.8 over the year. Small numbers, a few millimeters at a time, but always in the same direction.
In the middle of that watching, two things happened that taught me what advocacy actually costs.
Eight days before one of my appointments, a message came through the patient portal. It said the mass was not really significant, still mostly cystic, and that I could cancel the visit and just get another scan in a few months. I read it twice. Then I wrote back and quoted the other radiologist’s reading, the one that put it over 90%. The appointment stayed on the calendar.
I kept it. At that visit, I sat across from a specialist and asked the question that mattered most to me. I have a history of testicular cancer and platinum chemotherapy. Doesn’t that raise my risk for a second cancer? He did not think it did. He did not think platinum-based chemo was a significant risk factor for a second malignancy.
I had read the research. He had written the research in his own field. And I was sitting there being told the exact thing I had come in worried about was not a real concern.
That is the gap. That is the reason I am putting this on the page. The science is not the problem. The problem is that it does not reliably reach the person in the chair, so they have to carry it themselves. I had to be the one who knew my own risk. I had to be the one who pushed. I uploaded my own scans and asked for the opinion myself instead of waiting for the system to route me. I quoted one report back against the other. I asked the next question, and the next one, until the plan changed.
It is a real plan now. A biopsy first, because I have never had one, and a needle is the only thing that will finally settle what a year of imaging has been arguing about. Then ablation. They enter through the skin, guided by imaging, and destroy the mass with heat or cold. No open incision. That matters more for me than it would for most people, because my abdomen is already a map of old scars. A long incision from 1993. Two hernia repairs. A back surgery. Ablation goes around all of it. Then, a scan a few months later to confirm it worked.
So this is most likely my third cancer. The first one I beat. The second was a thyroid cancer last year, which I caught. This one I am going to treat before it gets a vote on how my story ends. My genetic testing came back negative for the known inherited cancer genes, so this is most likely not something I inherited. The most likely explanation is the treatment that saved my life thirty-three years ago. The cure is still being paid for. This is another installment.
If you are reading this because you just found your own mass, or because you are years past a cancer that everyone told you was finished, here are the things I wish someone had handed me.
A small kidney mass like mine, even if it turns out to be cancer, is very treatable when it is caught early. That holds for a lot of what gets caught late in survivors. Early is the whole game, and you can only be early if someone is still looking.
So be the one who keeps looking. You do not have to be loud. You do not have to fight anyone. You can ask what your treatment history means for the next twenty years. You can ask for the scan. You can ask for a second read when two readers disagree. You can write your own history down and carry it into every room, because you are the only person who sits in all of them. And you can find other people who have been through it, which is part of why I am writing this instead of keeping it to myself.
I am okay. I am treating this on my terms. I am going to keep telling the parts no one warned me about, because the warning is what helps.

My dad has been picking at his clothes, mostly his pajama pants vigorously almost everyday for a week now. Everyday starting in the morning when he sit him up he will pick and pick at them until there’s a hole. We went through 6 pairs of pajama pants in one week. He just starts at a specific spot and spends hours picking at this little spot until there’s a big hole. He also gets agitated stating that he can’t get the knot out (there’s no knot). He was cursing and asking for scissors to get “the knot” out. Is there anything we can do to differ this behavior? He just seems uncomfortable overall. Thanks in advance… we are not educated in this area and having a hard time distracting him or keeping him from doing it/forgetting about it. Other than that he doesn’t really have any cognitive issues as of yet.

I’m 17 I’ve had 17 rounds of chemo and my hair has got 3 months worth of growth so far and I feel like it’s long enough so that I don’t look like a cancer patient but too short to style or look like a nice haircut you know? People always tell me I’m just paranoid but I can definitely see other girls and boys my age giving me funny looks (probs not all because of my hair as I have 5 different scars on my body but still the hair doesn’t help). I haven’t been to school for almost 2 years and I’m starting college in September when im 18(I’m from the uk) so ill be older than everyone else there so I feel like there will be a big maturity gap and I won’t make friends bc of the way I look. Idk Iknow I shouldn’t complain because I’m alive right now but even a nurse has referred to me as a “he” before and I just ugh i don’t know I just hate the way I look.

I have a boyfriend and he is obsessed with the sex, he told me that her ex liked to make it all the time, but I'm different, and in this moment I'm working of my recovering of Lymphoma, and when he visit me he want to touch me, but I live with my parents, and he angry thinks that I don't love him, and I don't know what to think about him... All the men have sex obsession?

what are the best websites to learn about treatments for cancer? like options, treatments, and trials... to know if you're getting the best care?

Hello, after my dad's second chemo session, he had severe diarrhea and we took him to ER where they prescribed him some meds that helped him with diarrhea and MYANTALGIC for pain, the last two days however he's been hallucinating, seeing things that aren't there and he can't even move without assistance. I don't know if these are common side effects of chemo, we're planning to get him back to ER tomorrow because his team doesn't work at this time and we don't want to risk going elsewhere where they don't know his condition

Hi! My name is Rebekah and I am a 33 year old wife and mom to 2 boys (8 months and 2 years old). I have been diagnosed with stage 3 grade 3 ovarian endometrioid cancer. I am okay throughout the day, but I really struggle in the mornings. I have already had my debulking surgery and am going for my 2nd chemo next week. I look at my husband and kids and cry because I am so blessed but have a fear of leaving them behind. On a good note, my CA 125 before surgery was 154 but after surgery and only 1 chemo, it is now at 13. My doctor will not give a prognosis because he said everyone is different. He said my future is unknown, but he’s had patients beat this with no recurrences or 1 recurrence and it never comes back. I know I am higher risk being stage 3, but looking for advice and really just want to talk to people.

Thank you so much for reading