Just been diagnosed?

After a cancer diagnosis, you meet a cancer doctor or specialist nurse to talk about your treatment plan.

How quickly this appointment is arranged may depend on the type of cancer. You usually get the details for this appointment by letter, phone or text message.

If you are worried that you have missed the appointment details, ask your GP or the doctor who arranged your cancer tests to check for you.

At your appointment, you can ask any questions. The cancer doctor or specialist nurse will give you information about your treatment options to help you make a decision about the treatment you want.

They should give you information in a language and format that you can use, and make sure that you understand.

The doctor or nurse will also explain when your treatment may start. They can talk to you about any support you need.

We have more information about:

• How your cancer team plans your treatment.
• Making treatment decisions.

You may have questions about the type of cancer you have been diagnosed with. When you meet your cancer doctor or specialist nurse, they will give you information and may be able to answer your questions

You may want to learn about the type of cancer before this appointment. You can use our Cancer A to Z to find more information about different types of cancer. This can help you understand what to expect. But you may find information that is scary or unexpected, and which causes worry.

You may also decide to wait for your appointment. This means the information you get is correct for your situation.

The cancer service at Guy's and St Thomas's hospital have worked with people with cancer to develop a free podcast to support people when they receive a cancer diagnosis.

The 10 episodes cover key stages that people will go through such as diagnosis or hospital admission. In each episode, people with cancer tell their stories and cancer health care professionals give practical advice and signpost to support.

You can help yourself get ready for treatment by eating a healthy diet and keeping active. Even small changes to the way you eat, or moving a little more, can help.

If you smoke, stopping is one of the best things you can do for your health. Giving up smoking may:

• make some cancer treatments more effective
• reduce your risk of side effects
• help you recover faster after treatment.

We have more information about:

• a healthy, balanced diet
• physical activity and cancer.

Your cancer team may give you information about prehabilitation (also called prehab) as you prepare to have treatment. Prehab means getting as ready for treatment as you can. To help you prepare, your team usually gives you advice and support about:

• exercise
• healthy diet and weight
• mental health and wellbeing.

Prehab helps you cope physically and mentally with the cancer treatment. It may also improve your health and wellbeing after treatment.

When someone close to you is diagnosed with cancer it can be hard to know how to help them or even what to say. You might find it helpful to read our tips for talking to someone with cancer. Or our information about supporting someone with cancer.

It is often useful to talk to someone who is in a similar situation. Our Online Community has groups for carers, and for family and friends.

We want everyone affected by cancer to feel our information is written for them.

We want our information to be as clear as possible. To do this, we try to:

• use plain English
• explain medical words
• use short sentences
• use illustrations to explain text
• structure the information clearly
• make sure important points are clear.

We use gender-inclusive language and talk to our readers as ‘you’ so that everyone feels included. Where clinically necessary we use the terms ‘men’ and ‘women’ or ‘male’ and ‘female’. For example, we do so when talking about parts of the body or mentioning statistics or research about who is affected.

You can read more about how we produce our information here.