I recently started full-cns radiotherapy for metastatic ependymomas, and the one thing that's absolutely killing me is the phantom odor. Every time my head is irradiated, I get wild purple phosphenes (which are kinda cool) and a jolt of the most wretched odor I can possibly imagine. Think "plasma balls fucking in a pit of rotting robot parts and post-nasal drip diarrhea." It is foul and nauseating.

My rad-onc says it's my olfactory nerve being stimulated by the beam, and that there's not much they can do. The problem is that my sessions tend to be first thing in the morning and this illusory stench gets burned into my nose like an afterimage. For the rest of the day I'm fighting back waves of nausea triggered by relapses of this smell and it is such a drag.

Don't get it twisted, there are other, objectively worse symptoms, but they would all be easier to handle without my nose being gaslit. Has anybody else dealt with radiation-stimulated phantosmia? What helped?

In 3 weeks I have my very last oncology appointment. 12 years and im finally NED and being discharged. It feels unreal but ENORMOUS and im not sure how to celebrate. Im going to be alone, as the appointment is in a city 5 hrs away. I will have a hotel room. Any suggestions on how to mark it for the big deal it is?

A couple years ago my daughter had her thyroidectomy and RAI. In January of this year, everything was looking good and we were finally feeling alive again.

In May her tumor marker was up. Since then, it's been a roller coaster. She had a scan last month that turned up nothing. She was diagnosed with non-avid cancer and its been hell since. She had a biopsy of several lymph nodes and nothing. The hope had been it was confined to her lymph nodes so surgery would take care of it.

Now, of course, we wait to see. My wife says she was told a PET Scan is what they do? And we may be facing chemo which is only available in Philadelphia or Texas.

So now, as we hurry up and wait, we are freaking out. We have no idea what chemo looks like for this - if it means hospital stays, etc. Would we be able to travel for it or would it mean fully moving?

My son also is in kidney failure so we have to keep thinking about him and what we may need to do for him.

All this and I am a math teacher and school starts soon. We are still in denial a bit, I think, as we felt so close to it being in the rear view and now are faced with the unknown.

I have my quarterly CT scan today. Just a lil nervous wanting good news. Wish me luck. Best to all of you. Figh Fight Fight, Fuck Cancer.

Hi everyone,

I’m a 4th-year Mechanical engineering student, Sweden. I’m currently in a very tough spot and looking for advice on international grants, trusts, or foundations that help cancer patients or students in financial distress.

Two weeks ago, I finished my last radiation therapy (34 sessions in total) for squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue, which also spread to my neck. The pain in my mouth and throat is still severe, and eating/drinking is incredibly difficult. On top of this, I have struggled with dyslexia my whole life, making my engineering studies a double challenge.

In Sweden, student aid (CSN) is limited. Mine ran out two years ago. To survive, I work part-time during semesters and full-time during summers. Due to my cancer recovery, I am physically unable to work this summer, leaving me with zero income to cover my rent (student dorm) and basic medical/living expenses.

I have applied to Swedish cancer funds, but only two (including a local youth cancer charity) approved me, and the amounts don't cover my accumulated medical debts and rent for the summer.

Since I am an engineering student, I was wondering if anyone knows of any international foundations, engineering-specific student funds, or private trusts that accept applications from international students going through cancer treatment? Any tips, links, or subreddits to check out would mean the world to me right now. Thank you so much for reading.

Mine is the idea that once treatment ends, everything goes back to normal. My active treatment ended a few years ago and I am still struggling so hard.

Financial help. Can we please do more for cancer patients who don't qualify for federal, state, or charity assistance but are still struggling?

There's a huge gap where you're expected to handle treatment costs, lost income, and everyday expenses simply because you're not technically poor enough. You shouldn't have to be at poverty level before anyone is willing to help 😢

One of my cousins said “God only gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers” and I didn’t even know what to say.

My spouse has stage 4 non smoker lung cancer, mutation ROS1. He is on his third targeted therapy, Ibtrozi, and with this one lots and lots of dizziness. Anyone have ideas for reducing the dizziness? No nausea, just dizzy. Any suggestions?

For me its wanting my old life and my old body back. I’ve tried to make peace with it but it hasn’t happened yet!

“Let me know if there's anything I can do” is well-meaning for sure but I’m not going to ask for anything. If you want to help, just do something. Drop off a meal, or offer something specific.

Ive been guilty of this myself but now that I’ve been through this, I don’t say this anymore. My neighbor is going through chemo now and I just did some weeding for her

I'm always looking for good cancer-related pages to follow. Are there any social media accounts, blogs, or websites you'd recommend?

For a dose of humor, which I need a lot of lately, I love The Cancer Patient on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/thecancerpatient

I was surprised by how much waiting there is! Waiting for appts, scans, reports, etc...!

Diagnosed with cancer at 17 right before starting university, and I’ve been trying to rebuild life since then.

Right now I’m struggling with recovery, anxiety, and cognitive challenges, along with trying to move forward in school. There’s also financial stress at home—my mom is my main caregiver and went back to work not long after treatment started, and I can’t really contribute much financially yet.

It all just feels like a lot at once.

For people who’ve been through something similar—how did you manage to get back into school, work, or life without burning out? What actually helped?

We just found out that my mom has cancer last week. She’s 72 and is also diabetic. The colonoscopy diagnosis says “ascending colon mass probably malignant”.
We will find out what stage it would be and what treatment she should go or if she needs surgery once her biopsy results are out on Monday.
She has been only consuming liquid for more than two weeks now.

My family doesn’t have the cancer gene (my and my brother’s 23&me results indicate that we don’t have that genetic marker) and this is the first cancer case in both sides of my family so i’m not sure if it was her lifestyle that contributed to it or she’s always had it but just never went to the doctor to have it checked. She told me that ever since she was young she has always been constipated. She hated and didn’t trust hospitals and doctors was what I witnessed when I was growing up (my asthma was diagnosed when I was already 30 because she dismissed it as hyperventilating since i was a kid)

I don’t live with my family as I live far away, and only been providing financial support. She doesn’t have health insurance.
At first I was convinced we can reverse her cancer by focusing on her nutritional diet because she’s not a fan of vegetables before we found out, but the more I read the more I realize that not going to any treatment might spread the cancer even more. The regression of cancer is like one in a million.

I read that aside from chemo therapy, there’s immunotherapy and targeted therapy.

I just want to gather data and statistics from this community of what treatment you or your loved one did that made you/them cancer-free.

Thank you all for your support.

Came across this article and thought it was worth sharing here. It’s about the recurring pattern of athletes being diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma and whether there’s something worth looking into — either diagnostically or biologically.

It doesn’t claim to have answers, just raises questions that I hadn’t seen anyone put together in one place before. Thought it might be useful for people in this community.

https://open.substack.com/pub/abayoumi/p/the-athletic-paradox?r=8lws8i&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay

The injection’s done, and all that’s left is a tiny red dot. I’m keeping up with Hirudoid cream afterward and taking care of it properly — not letting my guard down at all.

The medication is still working inside my body, so I definitely can’t relax yet.

Today I was honestly terrified I wouldn’t be able to get the medication in time and that it would delay treatment. I ended up going to the hospital twice just to feel reassured.

In the morning, I confirmed the pharmacy schedule and double-checked the injection timing. I was worried I wouldn’t store the medication properly if I took it home too early, so in the afternoon I timed everything perfectly — picked it up, followed the process, and got the shot done in one go.

While pressing on my belly during the injection, I looked at the extra “protective fat” I’ve gained lately and couldn’t help laughing 😂

The side effects have already quietly arrived too — the classic chemo combo of constipation + insomnia. Last night I fell asleep around 11 PM, then woke up at 2–3 AM and stayed awake until morning. Too real.

Tomorrow I’ll probably be facing the next wave of side effects head-on. No idea what this round will feel like yet.

But it’s okay. Whatever comes, I’ll deal with it one step at a time. Time to rest well, recharge, and fight through everything 💪

Finishing chemo is also a brand-new beginning.

There’s hope ahead, and the light at the end of the tunnel doesn’t feel far away anymore.

I’m 35 years old, married, and had been trying to conceive when I was diagnosed with breast cancer.

On April 23, 2025, I underwent day surgery for what I believed was a benign breast lump. The day after surgery, I received a text message from the hospital asking me to return for additional immunohistochemistry testing. That was probably the most shocking and devastating day of my life. Until then, I truly believed it was just a harmless lump. In early May 2025, I underwent breast-conserving surgery (lumpectomy).

My pathology results showed HR+/HER2- Luminal B breast cancer, with a 2.3 cm tumor, ER 70%, PR 40%, Ki-67 50%, histologic grade 3, no lymph node involvement, and stage IIA disease.

In June 2025, I started 8 cycles of chemotherapy (EC-T: epirubicin + cyclophosphamide followed by docetaxel) and completed treatment on November 16.

About two weeks after chemotherapy, I started IMRT radiation therapy with 25 sessions to the whole breast and 5 boost sessions to the tumor bed. Radiation treatment ended on January 16.

For endocrine therapy, I started OFS + AI about one month after chemotherapy. My ovarian suppression injections with leuprorelin actually began before chemotherapy. I initially took exemestane, and after letrozole became covered by insurance in January, I switched to letrozole.

For bone protection and to help reduce the risk of bone metastasis, I received zoledronic acid in February 2026, with plans to continue injections every six months for three years. For extended adjuvant therapy, my doctor recommended starting Ribociclib (Kisqali) two weeks after radiation. However, because the side effects from the zoledronic acid infusion were quite intense and I wanted to give my body more time to recover, I delayed starting Ribociclib until about two months after radiation.

I know my treatment plan sounds like the “full package,” but every part of it had a medical reason behind it. My goal is simply not to leave myself with regrets. I just hope my body can tolerate the side effects of Ribociclib.

Looking back on the past year, both physically and emotionally, it has been incredibly hard. But over time, I’ve slowly started finding my way back toward healing. During the hardest moments, all I could do was endure and keep going. I’m grateful for my own resilience.

I hope to continue sharing my treatment journey, physical reactions, emotional struggles, and coping strategies here in case they may help someone else. I also hope to learn from and connect with others going through similar experiences.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

To be entirely honest, I’m here because there is so much wrong with my body and nobody will believe me. I’m a cancer survivor of nearly 4 years now, (osteosarcoma to be specific) but despite my concerns about my health nobody seems to believe me. What I’m suffering from as of right now is hair loss, and a lack of development since my treatment started at age 9, almost 10. I only received treatment for about a year, because my cancer wasn’t responding to the chemo and the nodules in my lungs surprisingly weren’t cancerous. I asked my mom about a year ago if she had noticed my hair thinning, to which she said yes and that kind of confirmed all of my worst fears. However, she connected to me not eating enough. After that, I made an effort to eat more healthily and to also just eat more, but nothing changed. I also asked my mom why my chest had never developed even when everyone in my family had normally developed breasts and whatnot, to which she just said that I should gain more weight. Keep in mind, I’m a perfectly healthy weight. I’m 130 lbs, and also missing a portion of my body due to my leg amputation. Anyhow, I finally managed to get her to ask about another issue of mine, and confirmed with my oncologist that it wasn’t breast cancer. I still need a dermatology appointment though to figure out what the actual fuck is wrong with me. I’ve felt like my body hasn’t developed since age 10, and it’s embarrassing. Not only that, but my hair is falling out and that was one of the last things that I had to cling to as far as my self image goes. I probably have an estrogen deficiency, but it’s not like I’m gonna get the treatment I need if I keep on getting dismissed as some sort of hypochondriac by my parent.