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Originally published June 8, 2026
Last updated June 8, 2026
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Maria Nelson, MD, a surgeon and the director of breast, endocrine and soft tissue surgery with USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC, discusses ways patients can help improve their recovery.
The biggest role a patient can play to help ensure they have an optimal recovery is to be well informed. Being prepared at your appointments, asking good questions and anticipating what your next treatment steps will be is very helpful so that you know that you’re on track with your treatment. Finding a provider that you feel confident in is a big part of this. You need to be able to trust your doctor, and if you don’t feel confident and trust your care team then it can be a really rocky road with cancer care.
If your treatment didn’t go as well you hoped or expected, it can be hard to know how to approach your doctor with concerns. My advice in this situation is to tell them you’re disappointed, without necessarily being mean about it. You could say, “I’m disappointed in my treatment outcome, and I wasn’t prepared for this.” It’s good to explain where you are at, because then your provider might be able to clarify any questions you still have and offer you further care.
For example, after breast cancer surgery, a patient can sometimes get keloids from scarring. If you’re the type of person who is worried or maybe prone to keloids, that might be something to pay attention to when you’re formulating your surgery decision. Your provider will be able to tell you which surgical options and incision pattern options will have a higher chance of you forming a keloid. This can be a very personal thing — whether keloids bother you or not — and so the more informed you are and the more questions you ask, the happier you can be with your outcome.
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