What to Expect

Once a diagnosis of cancer has been made, you will probably talk with your primary care physician along with several cancer specialists, such as a surgeon, a medical oncologist and a radiation oncologist. You will want to ask these doctors about all your treatment options.

In some cases, your cancer will need to be treated by using more than one type of treatment. If you have skin cancer, you might have surgery to remove the cancer (by a surgeon), then have radiation therapy to destroy any remaining cancer cells in the skin surrounding the cancer (by a radiation oncologist). Sometimes lymph nodes are also sampled as part of your initial surgery. You also might receive chemotherapy or targeted therapy (by a medical oncologist) to destroy cancer cells that may have traveled to other parts of the body.

After reviewing your medical record including imaging, as well as completing a thorough patient history and physical examination, your radiation oncologist will discuss with you the potential benefits and risks of radiation therapy and answer your questions. For a list of questions that you may want to ask, please see the section Questions to Ask Your Doctor.