If you're experiencing anxiety, sadness, or other stressful emotions while waiting for cancer treatment to start, it may help you to talk to others about it. You might have questions about the timing of your treatment, including when it will start, whether it can be delayed, or why you might be able to wait to begin even though delaying cancer treatment may not be the most ideal for a cancer patient, it can be necessary in some cases to delay. Starting treatment as soon as possible is important, but not always. Your cancer type and stage will determine when treatment can or should be started.

Treatment may need to be started quickly if:

• You have metastasis to vital organs

• You have a type of cancer that needs to be treated immediately, like some leukemias, lymphomas, and certain other cancers that tend to be aggressive (grow and spread very fast).

• You have a tumor that's pressing on an organ or other vital part of the body, and treatment is needed to relieve the pressure.

Delay

Waiting a few weeks or months before starting treatment is possible if your cancer is not growing as fast as others. The reasons may be:

• You are waiting to get the lab results back which will help you decide the best treatment option.

• You are healing from surgery to remove a tumor, 

• Before starting treatment, you must arrange for work, your child, and perhaps even pet care.

• There may be very important factors that must be worked around.

• You want more time to get a second opinion.

It's important to know each person's case is different. Many factors can affect when treatment should, or does, start.