Jan must blink his eyes every quarter of an hour: Many are struggling with after-effects following cancer.

With more and more survivors of cancer, more people will also live with after-effects. According to Cancer Society, approximately 400,000 people in Denmark live with a cancer disease, and more than half experience after-effects.

However, it can be difficult to find the right help and treatment. Therefore, future cancer treatment should also focus more on the treatment of after-effects, as it emerged when the Health Authority presented its recommendations for the latest cancer plan today.

One of those who have noticed what it means to get the right help for after-effects after a severe cancer treatment is 54-year-old Jan Lyndrup Hansen, who was previously a software license salesman but is now a retired pensioner.

------------------

What are after-effects?

------------------

After-effects are ongoing changes and consequences that can occur after the end of cancer treatment.

It can be both physical, psychological or social changes, which can be disabling in daily life.

For example, feelings of confusion, pain, anxiety, depression or sexual problems.

Since he was declared cancer-free in February 2022, he has had a close relationship with the Cancer Department at Herlev Hospital, and he has used it to that extent, he says.

- When one is cancer-stricken in the way I was cancer-stricken, everything one's surplus, all one's resources, one's overview, everything one normally can, is completely gone.

- I don't know where I would be today if it weren't for the After-effects Clinic.

------------------------------------

Sent home with a brochure about after-effects

------------------------------------

Jan Lyndrup Hansen was diagnosed with breast cancer in August 2019 and was treated with immunotherapy. He was declared cancer-free for the first time in 2020, but had major problems with after-effects of immunotherapy.

Among other things, he had pain and lack of ability to produce saliva and tears, which means that he has to drop his eyes every quarter of an hour, even at night.

He was sent home with a brochure about after-effects and a message that if there was something, he should contact his own doctor.

- I tried it right away afterwards, because I had a lot of problems. But my own doctor shrugged his shoulders and said, "Jan, I can't help you, because I simply don't know what this is about", tells Jan Lyndrup Hansen.

Chairman of the Danish Society for General Medicine, Bolette Friderichsen, has admitted to DR that there is too much difference in what patients can get help for, and calls for research into how practicing doctors can better treat after-effects (https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/thea-became-cancer-free-but-lost-her-job-due-to-severe-after-effects).

------------------------

'They wrapped their arms around me'

------------------------

Jan Lyndrup Hansen's cancer returned, and when he was sick after a very severe treatment again was declared cancer-free in February 2022, he experienced a big difference compared to the first time he was declared cancer-free.

He was assigned two nurses, whom he could call and who helped him find his way around the offers he needed.

- I really feel that arms are wrapped around me, and that they try to help me on all fronts and canters, both mentally and physically.

----------------------------

More people get and live with cancer

----------------------------

* More people get cancer: 48,372 were diagnosed with cancer in 2023. This is more than ever before and the number will continue to rise.

* More people live with cancer: 396,775 live with cancer or have had cancer in the last ten years. This is more than ever before and the number will continue to rise.

* More people live with after-effects: Approximately half of the people who live with or have had a cancer diagnosis experience after-effects.

* Cancer is the most common cause of death with 16,033 annual deaths in 2020.

Source: New cancer cases in Denmark 2023 and Cancer Society

- One stands as a cancer patient and does not know if one should go to the right or left, or who one should turn to. They go in and find out what challenges one has, and then they know exactly which departments or specialists one should be referred to, tells Jan Lyndrup Hansen.

-----------------------------

Already well underway in Herlev

-----------------------------

At Herlev Hospital, they began offering help with after-effects for breast cancer patients and patients like Jan Lyndrup Hansen, who have received immunotherapy for breast cancer, half a year ago.

On January 1st, a combined After-effects Clinic for all diagnosis groups that require help with complex after-effects after cancer opened. A clinic that offers the attached patients the help that the Health Authority now recommends that all former cancer patients receive.

It is especially the help with getting an overview of the treatment and the offers that can improve quality of life that they help with. Contact with other departments, municipalities, Cancer Society or other patient associations.

- We have seen that there has been a lack of someone who can be the coordinating role that helps our patients navigate around what can make a difference for me, says Heidi Terndrup, who is a head nurse on the Cancer Treatment Department at Herlev Hospital.

- If one comes with five different after-effects, one may have given up in advance to find out where one can get help from.

--------------------------------

'There is someone on the other end'

--------------------------------

The increased focus is noticed by Jan Lyndrup Hansen, who also struggles with fatigue, concentration problems and problems with short-term memory.

>

> I am regularly called up and am at meetings with them every other-third month, where we just check if I am still doing well

> Jan Lyndrup Hansen, former cancer patient

- There has been a big change, and it is becoming markedly better from one to the next, I have a grip on the After-effects Clinic. I am regularly called up and am at meetings with them every other-third month, where we just check if I am still doing well, tells Jan Lyndrup Hansen.

In addition to the help with the treatment of the many after-effects he is struggling with, Jan Lyndrup Hansen has received help to join a men's cancer team.

He has received help to join a week-long medical order for cancer patients, where one can share experiences and experiences, and most recently he has been contacted about the fact that there is now also an offer of help for relatives, which may be relevant for Jan Lyndrup Hansen's wife.

He believes that his quality of life has been greatly improved because he knows that he can call directly to the After-effects Clinic if he needs help.

- If I have an uncertainty or have gotten a pain somewhere or have a need to talk to a psychologist or need to attend a course on fear of relapse. Well, then I know that there is someone on the other end who will do everything they can to help me.

Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.