‘‘Nobody ever says that it’s (officially) over with breast cancer,’’ according to Jill Taylor-Brown, director of Patient and Family Support Services, CancerCare, Manitoba, Canada. ‘‘They say things are good, and unless you have symptoms, you will be fine.’’ The problem is that in Cancer Purgatory, your loved one doesn’t feel fine because, according to Taylor-Brown, she always is going to worry whether she is being checked properly.

Psycho-oncologist Dr. Jimmie Holland, in her book The Human Side of Cancer, concurs: ‘‘We expected women to be jubilant on finishing treatment; in fact, the opposite occurred. They had a paradoxical increase in distress just after treatment, and we learned then about this feeling of vulnerability on finishing treatment. Two main factors caused this new and unexpected anxiety: the fear that the cancer could come back now that they were without the protective effects of treatment, and the fear that they were not being watched as closely by their doctors.’’