Unmet needs and holistic care
Psychosocial care and support
Goals of follow up
- Local recurrence
- Nodes
- Metastatic disease
- Symptoms and psychological recovery
How to follow up
- Most recurrences (local, nodal, metastatic) occur within the first 2-3 years
- 3 monthly follow up for first two years
- Clinical examination of primary and nodes
- Regular self examination (including nodes)
- For those who did not undergo invasive nodal staging, or were pN0 on nodal staging, imaging of the nodes with US +/- FNA is optional.
- For those who were pN1, US or CT or FDG-PET are optional in conjunction with nodal examination
- Follow up should be minimum 5 years, with stretching out to 6 monthly for years 3 – 5.
- Lifelong self-examination.