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Long-term survivorship

  1. Home
  2. Living with cancer
  3. Your child has cancer
  4. After treatment
  5. Long-term survivorship
Print

Each child’s experience with cancer is different. And each child’s experience as a cancer survivor is different. Some find that surviving cancer is just a small part of their life and their history. Others say it has greatly changed their life and the way they live it.

Being a childhood cancer survivor involves many periods of transition. There is the transition from being a child to an adult, the transition from a pediatric clinic to an adult clinic and the transition from having your parents oversee your healthcare to advocating for your own healthcare. There is also the transition from active treatment to being off treatment and then from being off treatment to long-term survival.

As time goes by, how you feel about being a survivor of childhood cancer, and the transitions you have gone through, can change.

Emotions

For children with cancer and their families, the end of treatment brings an entirely new set of emotions. The transition from being a cancer patient to a cancer survivor can be an emotional roller coaster. What should be a time of celebration and relief that treatment is over is often a time of mixe
Learn more on Emotions

Relationships

When a child finishes treatment and starts to reintegrate back into the family, the school and the community, many families find that their relationships have changed. There are changes in: relationships with the child’s healthcare team relationships within the family unit marital relationships rela
Learn more on Relationships

Wellness plans

A wellness plan that includes healthy habits and regular medical care helps survivors of childhood cancer live healthy lives and reduce the impact of late effects of cancer treatment. Healthy habits include eating well, being physically active, maintaining a healthy body weight, limiting alcohol, no
Learn more on Wellness plans

Future planning

It can be helpful for survivors of childhood cancer to develop a plan for their education, career, future goals and finances as an adult. Find out if your follow-up program has a counselling service to help childhood cancer survivors with education and employment.
Learn more on Future planning

Having children

Many childhood cancer survivors worry about what their family life will be in the future. If you were treated for cancer as a child, you may worry about: whether you will be able to have children birth defects or health problems in future children because of your treatment your child having cancer l
Learn more on Having children

Medical disclaimer

The information that the Canadian Cancer Society provides does not replace your relationship with your doctor. The information is for your general use, so be sure to talk to a qualified healthcare professional before making medical decisions or if you have questions about your health.

We do our best to make sure that the information we provide is accurate and reliable but cannot guarantee that it is error-free or complete.

The Canadian Cancer Society is not responsible for the quality of the information or services provided by other organizations and mentioned on cancer.ca, nor do we endorse any service, product, treatment or therapy.

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