Healthcare and wellness providers needed a model that more aptly defined the cancer journey through the point of recovery.  Although cancer is a very individualized process in both the progression of the disease and in how treatment affects a person, there are patterns to care that enable us to utilize a framework like the Cancer Recovery Arc to create survivorship care plans and to engage in a realistic conversation about recovery time.

After many years of drawing this diagram for clients, I began to use it in my classes too. It served as a practical tool for massage practitioners to understand the need for more gentle work and for exercise specialists to understand the need to train from the "new normal", and to be cautious in the goal setting process.