In the immediate aftermath of a cancer diagnosis, everyone feels a great deal of embarrassment and fear. It's common for people with cancer to go through a period of denial that they have cancer, followed by anger as they try to figure out why they have cancer.

However, what you need to do is work through your feelings of embarrassment, fear, anger, anxiety, and depression, correctly look at the stage of your cancer, and figure out treatment conditions in the future.

"You need to fight cancer wisely, so you must deal with all the embarrassment before beginning the treatment," said June On the YouTube channel of the National Cancer Center, Jung So-yeon, director of the Cancer Survivors' Integrated Support Center for Cancer Survivor at the National Cancer Center (NNC).

Jung advised on the things to check before treatment after a cancer diagnosis on the NNC’s YouTube channel.

First, there is an important thing to check before cancer treatment -- make sure no one else in your family has been diagnosed with cancer.

"If you have a family member who has been diagnosed with cancer similar to you, or if there are related cancers, you may have to undergo genetic counseling," Jung said. "Genetic counseling can change the direction of treatment if there is a gene mutation that you were born with."

Patients should also consider their long-term life plans before cancer treatment.

"If you want to get pregnant, you may experience infertility due to cancer treatment," Jung said. "So, it's important to prepare for long-term pregnancy before cancer treatment."

The financial situation for cancer treatment should also be checked. In Korea, when a patient is diagnosed with cancer, the government covers 95 percent of the treatment cost through a special insurance calculation system. Nevertheless, some patients find it very difficult to pay for their co-payment.

"In such cases, each hospital has a medical social welfare team," Jung noted. “You can talk to your doctor about your situation, and if you contact the hospital, there is a department that can help you resolve your financial difficulties. So, you shouldn't worry about it alone, and don't give up treatment for financial reasons, but always ask for help with an open mind."

After a cancer diagnosis, patients may also be looking for information about their cancer treatment. However, it's important not to be swayed by misinformation without consulting your doctor.

"After a cancer diagnosis, people look for ways to help with their cancer treatment. However, suppose you are diagnosed with cancer in the early stages. In that case, it is very important to trust your doctor and get accurate information, rather than going all out based on misinformation from the outside."

Misinformation still leads many cancer patients to forgo treatments that have been proven effective in large-scale studies and come to the doctor when their condition worsens. In extreme cases, patients with early-stage breast cancer who could have received a simple partial mastectomy and, if necessary, four additional rounds of chemotherapy and antihormone therapy based on the biopsy results turned to alternative medicine instead and allowed their cancer to grow.

"The patient went into the mountains for a year and a half to practice alternative medicine, and the cancer grew so large that it was impossible to operate. At that time, we could try upfront anticancer treatment and operate on her when it became possible to do so,” she said. "In a way, there is an opportunity for easier treatment in the early stages, and I hope that people don't miss the timing of treatment due to misinformation and end up doing additional treatments that they don't need to do."

Besides, it is important to properly accept the cancer and check the future cancer treatment environment so that the patient does not end up in a difficult situation by blaming close family members or coworkers during the process of accepting the cancer, worsening the relationship, or hiding the cancer out of concern for the children.

"Cancer patients face various difficulties during the treatment process, and it is very important to have a supportive family to help them cope with them," Jung said. "Don't keep your difficulties to yourself; ask your family for help, and let them know how to talk to you if there are things you can't tell them for fear of worrying them. It's important to communicate with your children and spouse."

Human relationship dysfunction has a significant impact on cancer patients' treatment. In some cases, patients may not receive enough cancer treatment, which can lead to recurrence or metastasis.

"After a cancer diagnosis, a patient may feel denial and anger, thinking ‘Why did I get cancer...,” Jung said. “The anger is often directed at their spouse, children, or coworkers who were close to them at work, and the stress between them can lead to anger over issues such as whether or not they caused my cancer."

This can lead to fighting even before treatment and not getting support from the people who can support you the most at the time of treatment, she noted.

"Sometimes, such anger or depression affects the 'adherence to treatment' and leads to relapse or metastasis due to insufficient treatment," Jung said. "There are medical staff who can help with anxiety, depression, and sleeplessness, so if you have various physical and mental difficulties, you can always come and ask for help and solve them."