• Question: if you had cancer and then you got well again and then you get cancer again would it be worse then the first one ?

    Asked by cupcake94 to Amar, Ana, Andrea, Leah, Matt on 13 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Amar Joshi

      Amar Joshi answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Hi cupcake,

      That is a very good question. If your first cancer was treated, you could then get a second different type of cancer which would be like getting the first cancer first time around.

      However, some times after treatment, the same cancer can come back – called remission. How this happens can depend on the initial treatment. For example, if you had surgery and a tiny amount of the tumour wasn’t removed this could grow again. This would not be better or worse. With remission after chemotherapy the picture is less clear and I guess would depend on the type of cancer and length of remission.

    • Photo: Matthew Lam

      Matthew Lam answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      If you get treated for cancer and it goes away then there is still a chance it may come back. This is because there may still be some cancer cells left behind that haven’t been killed by the treatment and they can go on to grow into new tumours.

      When the cancer does come back it is often worse and harder to treat because the cancer cells sometimes become resistant to treatments.

    • Photo: Anastasia Wass

      Anastasia Wass answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      Hey Amar is right, it depends if the second time it’s a whole new disease or if it’s the first one returning.
      If it’s a whole new disease (whether or not its the same type of cancer) you can usually treat it the same way.
      If it’s the same cancer but its returning this usually makes it more difficult to treat as it’s often resistant to previous chemotherapy drugs. Other treatments such as surgery and radiation will still be effective and their are a wide range of drugs to try.

    • Photo: Andrea Hanvey

      Andrea Hanvey answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      The other scientists are quite right.

      On a different note Some times if people get cancer at a young age and are treated the actual treatment they receive can lead to them developing a different cancer later in life. I’ve been involved with a trial recently that involves the treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma in young people. The trial is looking at the minimum amount of treatment that can be given to treat the disease so patients aren’t being over treated.

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