Cancer survivor

A cancer survivor is a person with or beyond cancer of any type who is still living. Whether a person becomes a survivor at the time of diagnosis or after completing treatment, whether people who are actively dying are considered survivors, and whether healthy friends and family members of the cancer patient are also considered survivors, varies from group to group. Some people who have been diagnosed with cancer reject the term survivor or disagree with some definitions of it.

How many people are cancer survivors depends on the definition used. Nearly 65% of adults diagnosed with cancer in the developed world are expected to live at least five years after the cancer is discovered. In the U.S. for example, about 17 million Americans alive today—one in 20 people–are either currently undergoing treatment for cancer or have done so in the past (up from 11 million, or one in thirty people, in 2009). Globally, about 45 million people, mostly from wealthier countries, have survived cancer for at least five years.

For many people, surviving cancer can be highly traumatic and it is not uncommon for people to experience psychological distress such as post-traumatic stress-disorder or symptoms of post-traumatic-stress. Some cancer survivors describe the process of living with and beating cancer as a life-changing experience and some people who survive cancer may use the experience as opportunities for creative self-transformation into a "better person" or as motivation to meet goals of great personal importance, such as climbing a mountain or reconciling with an estranged family member. This process of post-traumatic growth is called benefit finding. Cancer survivors often have specific medical and non-medical needs related to their cancer experience.

Macmillan Cancer Support in the UK defines a cancer survivor as someone who is "living with or beyond cancer", namely someone who:

The National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS) pioneered the definition of survivor as being any person diagnosed with cancer, from the time of initial diagnosis until their death. This definition of survivor includes people who are dying from untreatable cancer. NCCS later expanded the definition of survivor even further to include family, friends and voluntary caregivers who are "impacted by the survivorship experience" in any way. Part of the goal in promoting survivorship was to stop using the older, more discouraging label cancer victim.

The US National Cancer Institute's Office of Cancer Survivorship uses a definition that focuses on identifying people with a medical history that includes any form of cancer, regardless of their self-identification with the word survivor.

The word survivor is a loaded term. Within the breast cancer culture, survivorship is conferred upon women and men who are perceived as having had emotional or physical trauma, even if their breast cancer was a non-life-threatening pre-cancerous condition like LCIS or DCIS. The term tends to erase and degrade people who are dying of incurable cancer. This idea of survivorship emphasizes and values longevity of life after diagnosis, while overlooking issues of quality of life.

Some people reject the term survivor as being a narrow conceptualization of highly variable human experiences. Alternatives include alivers and thrivers, which put emphasis on living as well as possible, despite limitations and disability. A third term, the diers, is used by some terminally ill patients who reject the claim that dying is part of survivorship or should be covered up with inappropriately optimistic language.