ON THIS PAGE: You will find some helpful links to other areas of Cancer.Net that provide information about tumor care and treatment. This is the final page of Cancer.Net’s Guide to Desmoid Tumor. Use the menu to go back and see other pages.

Cancer.Net includes many other sections about the medical and emotional aspects of a tumor for the person diagnosed and their family members and friends. This website is meant to be a resource for you and your loved ones from the time of diagnosis, through treatment, and beyond.

ON THIS PAGE: You will find some questions to ask your doctor or other members of the health care team, to help you better understand your diagnosis, treatment plan, and overall care. Use the menu to see other pages.

ON THIS PAGE: You will read about how to cope with challenges in everyday life after a tumor diagnosis. Use the menu to see other pages.

What is survivorship?

The word “survivorship” is complicated because it means different things to different people. Common definitions include:

• Having no signs of a tumor after finishing treatment.

• Living with, through, and beyond a tumor. According to this definition, tumor survivorship begins at diagnosis and continues during treatment and through the rest of a person’s life.

ON THIS PAGE: You will read about your medical care after treatment for a tumor is completed and why this follow-up care is important. Use the menu to see other pages.

Care for people diagnosed with a desmoid tumor does not end when active treatment has finished. Your health care team will continue to check that the tumor has not come back, manage any side effects, and monitor your overall health. This is called follow-up care.

ON THIS PAGE: You will learn more about coping with the physical, emotional, social, and financial effects of a tumor and its treatment. Use the menu to see other pages.

Every treatment can cause side effects or changes to your body and how you feel. For many reasons, people do not experience the same side effects even when they are given the same treatment for the same type of tumor. This can make it hard to predict how you will feel during treatment.

READ MORE BELOW:

ON THIS PAGE: You will read about the scientific research being done to learn more about desmoid tumors and how to treat them. Use the menu to see other pages.

Doctors are working to learn more about desmoid tumors, ways to prevent them, how to best treat them, and how to provide the best care to people diagnosed with them. The following areas of research may include new options for patients through clinical trials. Always talk with your doctor about the best diagnostic and treatment options for you.

ON THIS PAGE: You will learn more about clinical trials, which are the main way that new medical approaches are studied to see how well they work. Use the menu to see other pages.

ON THIS PAGE: You will learn about the different types of treatments doctors use for people with a desmoid tumor. Use the menu to see other pages.

This section explains the types of treatments, also known as therapies, that are the standard of care for desmoid tumors. “Standard of care” means the best treatments known. Information in this section is based on medical standards of care for a desmoid tumor in the United States. Treatment options can vary from one place to another.

ON THIS PAGE: You will learn about how doctors describe a tumor’s growth or spread. This is called the stage. Use the menu to see other pages.

Staging is a way of describing where the cancer is located, if or where it has spread, and whether it is affecting other parts of the body.

There are no official staging systems for desmoid tumors. Instead, the health care team develops a treatment plan based on the individual's specific situation. This may include the size of the tumor, if the tumor is causing symptoms or complications, and other factors.