When making up your mind about treatment, you must know every detail about the treatment you opt for. It would be best if you ask Questions to ask Healthcare Team anything about cancer that you don’t understand.
Don’t forget that you can ask your healthcare team questions during your treatment and after the treatment.
Questions to ask Healthcare Team after diagnosis
- What type of bladder cancer do I have?
- What is invasive and noninvasive, and which one is it?
- What is the stage of my cancer?
- What is the grade of my cancer?
- Does cancer involve muscles too?
- Should I go for a second opinion?
- Should I seek genetic testing or counselling?
Also Read: Simple Lifestyle Changes Can Reduce Your Cancer Risk
Questions to ask about treatment options
- What are my treatment options?
- Which treatment option do you recommend?
- What is the goal of treatment? Is it to eliminate cancer, help me feel better, or both?
- What are the side effects of treatment, both short term and long term?
- Can I change my mind after I start the treatment?
- What will be the effects of the treatment on my daily life?
- Can I work, exercise and perform my daily activities?
- Could this treatment affect my sex life and reproductive organs?
- What about the cost of the treatment?
Taking part in a clinical trial
- Is there any clinical trial available currently I can take part in?
- How does being a part of the trial change my treatment option?
- What is the aim and background of this trial?
Choosing not to have treatment
- Can I opt not to have any treatment?
- What are the possibilities if I decide not to take any treatment?
- If I avoid treatment now, can I have it later?
- Would the aim and result be the same if I take treatment later?
Questions to ask Healthcare Team about surgery
- What type of surgery will I have?
- How many procedures of this type have the surgeon done?
- Will my bladder be removed?
- If the bladder is removed, what about the urine reservoir?
- How long will the operation last?
- Is the surgery safe?
- How long do I need to stay in the hospital?
- What are the short-term and long-term effects of the surgery?
- How will the surgery affect my capacity to urinate?
- Will I use a catheter?
- Will I have a neobladder? How do I know when to clear it?
Questions about Radiotherapy
- What type of radiation therapy do you recommend and why?
- How long will it take for radiation therapy?
- What are the side effects of radiation therapy I will receive?
- What are the long term effects of radiation therapy?
- What can be done to prevent or reduce these effects?
Questions about side effects
- How will I be observed for side effects during and after treatment?
- Will side effects eventually go away, or will they be permanent?
- What can be done to minimize side effects?
- Are there complementary therapies for side effects?
- If many side effects appear, can I reduce or stop my treatment?
Question about after treatment
- What happens after treatment finishes?
- How long will it take to live my everyday life?
Questions about cancer recurrence
- How will I know that cancer has come back?
- What can be the symptoms and signs of a cancer recurrence?
- How can I reduce the risk of cancer coming back?
- What is an approach to staying healthy after treatment?
Questions about follow-up care
- What are the follow-up tests?
- How regularly do I need to visit my oncologist?
- Who will have my treatment summary, and how can I take them and survivorship care plan to keep in my records?
- Which survivorship support services are available to me? To my family?
- What is Bladder Cancer?
This is basic bladder cancer questions to ask healthcare team.
