Cancer Stories
Cancer patients and caregivers share their detailed stories to help anyone facing a cancer diagnosis of their own.
Start by picking cancer origin and type below, or check what patients have to say about popular cancer navigation issues here.
What is cancer?
Cancer starts when normal human cell activity breaks down, for instance, extra cells start rapidly dividing and form tumors or when damaged cells survive instead of dying.
This can happen anywhere in the body in both solid tumor form or liquid or blood tumors. Cancerous tumors have the ability to spread or metastasize, which is usually signaled by a stage 4 diagnosis.
But for many of us facing a diagnosis, whether a patient or as a caregiver, the literal definition doesn’t answer much. What we want to know include questions like:
- What can we expect?
- How do I tell my loved ones?
- Will I lose my hair?
- Can I work through my treatment?
- Do I need to preserve my fertility?
Stories by cancer type
Stories are only lightly edited for clarity.
Other cancer stories
- Egg Retrieval Before Chemo: Joyce shares her entire IVF journey, from what happened at the first meeting with the fertility doctor to what happened after the egg retrieval procedure.
Share your story
We are growing our library of stories. Your story can help a newly diagnosed patient in need when you share your story. If you’re interested:
- Register to join our community (and be the first to get newest stories and updates)
- Fill out our Intro Survey