More Americans Are Surviving Cancer. But the Mental Health Challenges Can Persist

This article is from a partnership that includes Iowa Public Radio , NPR , and KFF Health News. It can be republished for free .

The cancer diagnosis came as a shock, disrupting Morgan Newman’s plans for launching her life. It was 2015, and she was working as a dental assistant in Des Moines, Iowa, while studying to become a social worker.

After an abnormal result on her Pap smear, her doctor brought her back in to check the tissue for signs of cancer. Newman wasn’t that concerned at first.

She was only 24 years old. “I didn’t think anything of it,” she said.

Friends had received abnormal results, she recalled, “and they turned out to be OK.” But during the follow-up examination, she started bleeding so heavily that the doctor stopped the exam and immediately referred her to a gynecologic oncologist. Newman soon learned she had cervical cancer.

She had just moved into her own apartment for the first time. An increasing number of Americans are getting — and surviving — cancer.