Cancer survivor

A cancer survivor is a person with cancer of any type who is still living. Whether a person becomes a survivor at the time of diagnosis or after completing treatment, whether people who are actively dying are considered survivors, and whether healthy friends and family members of the cancer patient are also considered survivors, varies from group to group. Some people who have been diagnosed with cancer reject the term survivor or disagree with some definitions of it.

How many people are cancer survivors depends on the definition used. About 11 million Americans alive today—one in 30 people–are either currently undergoing treatment for cancer or have done so in the past. Currently nearly 65% of adults diagnosed with cancer in the developed world are expected to live at least five years after the cancer is discovered.

Many cancer survivors describe the process of living with and beating cancer as a life-changing experience. It is not uncommon for survivors to use the experience as opportunities for creative self-transformation into a "better person" or as motivation to meet goals of great personal importance, such as climbing a mountain or reconciling with an estranged family member. This process of posttraumatic growth is called benefit finding. Cancer survivors often have specific medical and non-medical needs related to their cancer experience.

Macmillan Cancer Support in the UK defines a cancer survivor as someone who is "living with or beyond cancer", namely someone who:

The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) pioneered the definition of survivor as being any person diagnosed with cancer, from the time of initial diagnosis until his or her death. This expansive definition of "survivor" includes people who are dying from untreatable cancer. NCCS later expanded the definition of survivor even further to include family, friends and voluntary caregivers who are affected by the diagnosis in any way. The US National Cancer Institute's Office of Cancer Survivorship uses a variant of this expanded definition.

The word survivor is a loaded term. Within the breast cancer culture, survivorship is conferred upon women who are perceived as having suffered emotional or physical trauma, even if their breast cancer was a non-life-threatening pre-cancerous condition like LCIS or DCIS. The term tends to erase and degrade people who are dying of incurable cancer. This idea of survivorship emphasizes and values longevity of life after diagnosis, while overlooking issues of quality of life.

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