More Americans are surviving cancer. But mental health challenges can persist.

The cancer diagnosis came as a shock, disrupting Morgan Newman’s plans to start her life over. It was 2015, and she was working as a dental assistant in Des Moines, Iowa, while she studied to become a social worker.

After an abnormal result on her Pap smear, her doctor brought her back to examine the tissue for signs of cancer. Newman wasn’t that worried at first. He was only 24 years old.

“I didn’t mind it,” he said. Friends got unusual results, she recalls, “and they were fine.”

But during a follow-up exam, she started bleeding so heavily that the doctor stopped the exam and immediately referred her to a gynecologic oncologist. Newman soon learned that she had uterine cancer. He moved into his own apartment for the first time.

An increasing number of Americans are getting – and surviving – cancer. More than 18 million cancer survivors in the United States in 2025 and the National Cancer Institute Guess that number will increase Reaching 22 million by 2035. But long after treatment is completed, many survivors face chronic mental health challenges that cannot be resolved.

Newman underwent six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy. Her scans thereafter were clear until the six-month mark, when her doctors found suspicious nodules in her lungs.

Newman underwent additional chemotherapy, which had more side effects. It was physically exhausting. But he was also struggling emotionally as he watched his friends hit significant adulthood milestones.

“My friends were getting married, they were having kids, you know, progressing in their lives and their careers, and I just felt stuck,” she said.

Newman previously underwent therapy for anxiety and depression. But after falling ill, he had to leave. Therapy was too expensive now that he had other medical bills. And she didn’t have time between doctor’s appointments, college courses and her full-time job.

Newman’s cancer treatment was over, and the scans were clear. By 2017, he got a new job with better health benefits. So he decided he could go back to therapy.

He worried that every ache and pain could bring the cancer back. At times, it was emotionally difficult to spend time with her friends who had children, as the radiation treatment damaged her reproductive system, leaving her unable to have children of her own.

Now, nearly 10 years later, Newman remains cancer free, and cancer prevention has become her passion. He started a new job in December as the Iowa grassroots manager for the lobbying arm of the American Cancer Society, and he has served on the boards of other cancer organizations in Iowa.

But she continues to go to therapy to deal with chronic anxiety, as well as the lingering effects of her treatment, such as her infertility.

“Fear of the unknown really takes over and can physically affect your body, as well as your mind,” she said. The question keeps swirling: “What if the cancer comes back?”

The ‘silent’ effect of cancer

Study display Cancer survivors experience anxiety and depression that can last for years after they finish treatment.

Advocacy group Cancer Nation Patients surveyed Nationwide last year. It found that nearly a third of those who had completed treatment expressed concerns about the cancer possibly returning, as well as problems not feeling like their “old self”. Only 1 in 5 of survivors surveyed reported seeing a mental health professional.

Finding a therapist who understands how cancer can affect people physically and emotionally can be a challenge, especially in a state like Iowa. According to Iowa Cancer RegistryThe number of Iowans alive five years after their diagnosis has increased by about 0.4% since 2000, and the state has the second-highest rate of new cancer diagnoses. Researchers Not sure whyBut University of Iowa scientists who run the registry A deep dive into the issue A two-year, state-funded project.

Iowa is also largely rural. There are several counties that Highest cancer rates There is also Fewer mental health workers. Newman went through several therapists before she was able to get an appointment with him Julie Larsonis a Des Moines-based therapist who works with many cancer survivors.

“I felt like I needed something more specific for what I was going through,” Newman said.

In Larson’s practice, it’s common for clients like Newman to begin therapy months or even a year after finishing treatment, when they realize they’re not feeling how they should feel.

“Physically, the human body has changed,” Larson said. “And they’re dealing with loss and grief. And those experiences are a little more silent, a little more invisible, and friends and families often don’t fully understand or understand.”

Larson said cancer survivors often seek her out because she understands cancer and the different types of treatments people have experienced.

“I’m not a doctor, but I’ve done it for a long time. So I know what happens when people have Adriamycin. I know the treatment protocol for carboplatin,” he said, citing the chemotherapy drug.

Oncology and mental health

The field of oncology often neglects mental health when it comes to cancer treatment, Dr Patricia Ganzis an oncologist and professor at the UCLA School of Public Health who has spent decades researching cancer survivors and their chronic challenges.

“We know how to give pills. We know how to give pain medicine, sleep medicine. But we don’t really go to school about antidepressants,” he said.

There is a growing awareness of the need to screen cancer patients for psychological distress and the need to provide mental health services for cancer patients and survivors, Ganz said, but expert-recommended Screening and referral Don’t always happen to the extent they should.

D MercyOne Richard Deming Cancer Center Started in Des Moines Service delivery such as counseling, music therapy, and mindfulness sessions to reduce stress in and outside of treatment.

“When you’re being treated for cancer you get intensive care,” says Richard DemingThe medical director of the clinic is named after him. In contrast, he said, when people complete treatment, care usually changes: “It’s almost like, ‘You should feel lucky that you’re cancer-free and just get on with your life.'”

Deming said that treating cancer comprehensively requires doctors to focus on more than just physical symptoms. This requires changes in the way doctors treat patients, he said.

“Every step along the way, whether it’s through diagnosis or treatment or follow-up, we have to ask, ‘What problems are you experiencing?'” Deming said. “Not just: ‘Do you have cancer? Have we gotten rid of cancer?'”

This article is from a partnership that includes Iowa Public Radio, NPRand KFF Health News.

KFF Health News A national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues and is one of KFF’s core operating programs—an independent source of health policy research, polling and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

this Article appeared first KFF Health News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License.

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Previously published at kffhealthnews.org

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