“Cancer survivorship is more than surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy,” says Dr Julie Denning of the UK patient advocacy group Working Towards Wellbeing. An overlooked reality of a patient’s cancer diagnosis is whether they will continue to work through their illness - or return to work after recovery. And how will the patient be supported during these difficult, ongoing decisions? While work can provide much-needed structure, hope and income in a cancer patient’s life, there are very few resources to support working cancer patients.

“We have regular conversations around survivorship recovery, fatigue, chronic pain, fear of recurrence, body image concerns, ‘chemo brain’ and workplace factors,” Denning writes in a new editorial for ecancermedicalscience. The emotional effect of this support has an impact as well: “Individuals have felt that it is invaluable to be able to talk to someone separate from their lives.”

Denning and colleague Nicola Hunter outline the importance of work to cancer patients and suggest ways to empower patients in their cancer – and work – journeys. This, in turn, will assist healthcare professionals. As more and more medical professionals recognize the benefits of work to cancer patients, expect the conversation to continue.

Read the full editorial here.