Cancer Survivor Follow-Up Tests to Track and Ask About

Keep your survivorship care plan and treatment summary where you can find them, keep a running list of every follow-up test with its date and result, and ask your cancer care team what you need and when. This page lists what to keep and what to ask. It does not say which tests you should have, because that depends on your cancer and your care plan.

What the sources say

• Follow-up care. The National Cancer Institute says follow-up care means seeing a health care provider for regular medical check-ups once you are done with treatment, and that check-ups may include bloodwork and other tests and procedures.
• Survivorship care plan. The CDC says it is a record of your cancer and treatment history, as well as any checkups or follow-up tests you need in the future. The National Cancer Institute adds that it may also address emotional, social or financial issues.
• Schedule. The American Cancer Society says you will need blood tests and imaging as part of follow-up, and that the exact testing and follow-up schedule depends on your type of cancer and your survivorship care plan.

What to keep in one place

• Your survivorship care plan and treatment summary. The CDC says to bring your care plan to all your doctor appointments, and the National Cancer Institute says many people keep it in a binder or folder.
• Each follow-up bloodwork result, with its date, unit and the range printed on that lab report.
• Imaging reports, with the date and where they were done.
• The names and phone numbers of every doctor involved. The National Institute on Aging suggests bringing the names and phone numbers of the other doctors you see.
• Your own list of changes you noticed since the last visit.

Questions to ask your cancer care team

The National Cancer Institute suggests these four, and they are a good start:

• Which doctors should I see for follow-up care, and how often?
• What symptoms should I watch out for?
• What tests do I need, and how often will I have them?
• What long-term health issues might I expect?

You can add: Who gets a copy of my results, my primary care doctor included? Which of my other lab results should go in my care plan? If you do not have a survivorship care plan, the CDC says to ask a member of your treatment team about getting one.

If your care is spread over several offices, our guide to combining records from different health systems covers gathering them, and our page on what to bring to a specialist covers the visit.

What to do with the files

Phi Longevity PRISM can pull your lab results from several places into a one-page Care Team Brief with each result's date and source, trends over time, and the guideline behind each flag. It reads PDFs, photos of printouts and spreadsheets, and connects to MyChart at participating Epic health systems. You print it or save it as a PDF and bring it with your care plan. See our page on cancer survivor follow-up labs and for people with chronic conditions.

Start free: put my follow-up results on one page →

What Phi Longevity PRISM does not do

It does not diagnose, and it does not tell you which tests you need, how often, or what a result means for you. It does not replace your survivorship care plan or your cancer care team. It reads lab results today; medicines, diagnoses and allergies are not imported yet. Your care team decides what you need.