Today, Beck is a 23-year-old medical student, and among a growing population of 18 million people who are surviving cancer for much longer, thanks to myriad recent advances like AI-powered tumor detection and new immunotherapies that chemically target cancers. Survival rates for pediatric cancer, in particular, are considered a crowning medical achievement: Those rates increased from 58% in the mid-1970s to 85% today.
But in order to get on with life after treatment, Beck also had to overcome many of the less-discussed aftereffects of cancer notably the missed schooling and loss of identity and peer support that came with it, not to mention various other cognitive and physical impacts of treatment that deeply shape survivorship.
Patients often feel forgotten when treatment ends, but research shows the knock-on effects, from mental health to financial challenges, can persist decades into recovery.
I was so, so jealous because Spiderman could just leave the hospital, and I couldn't. Spiderman got to take radiation, and he got cool powers; I got sick and sad and lonely and tired.
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