Living with cancer

Cancer touches every part of life. These short guides cover the first month after a diagnosis, money and insurance, work, family, food, exercise, feelings, caregiving, fertility, palliative care and life after treatment. Each one ends with practical steps and when to ask your care team for help.

• Your first 30 days: A simple list of steps that help most people feel more in control after a new cancer diagnosis.
• For caregivers: Practical help for the people who care for someone with cancer, including how to care for yourself.
• Talking with family and children: Ideas for sharing news about cancer with the people you love, including children of any age.
• Money and insurance: Where to start when cancer costs feel overwhelming, and the help that many people do not know exists.
• Work and school: Your rights and options for keeping up with work or school during and after cancer treatment.
• Fertility and cancer: Why it helps to talk about having children in the future before cancer treatment starts.
• Eating well during treatment: Simple ways to get the nutrition you need when treatment changes your appetite or how food tastes.
• Exercise and staying active: How moving your body, even a little, can help with fatigue, mood, and strength during and after treatment.
• Emotions and mental health: Cancer affects feelings as well as the body, and help for your emotional health is part of good cancer care.
• Palliative care: Extra support focused on comfort and quality of life, which you can get at any stage of cancer.
• Life after treatment: What to expect when active treatment ends, including follow-up care, late effects, and the feelings that come with it.
• Clinical trials basics: What clinical trials are, how they work, and what to ask if you are thinking about joining one.
• Preventing and spotting infections: Why infections are more likely during treatment, how to lower your risk, and when a fever is an emergency.
• Blood clots during cancer treatment: Why cancer raises the chance of blood clots, the warning signs, and how clots are treated.
• Blood transfusions and growth factor shots: Why you might need red cells, platelets, or shots that help your body make blood cells.
• Pain control: Cancer pain can usually be eased. How to describe your pain, the main types of treatment, and common worries about pain medicine.
• Cancer care for older adults: How age, health, and daily life shape cancer care, and how a geriatric assessment can make treatment safer.
• Genetic testing and family cancer risk: When cancer may run in the family, what testing can show, and what results mean for your relatives.
• Your first infusion day: What happens at a chemotherapy or immunotherapy infusion visit, what to bring, and when to call after you go home.
• When to call your care team: A simple guide to which symptoms need 911, which need a call to your care team right away, and which can wait for office hours.