Handing your records back to your home oncologist
Your home oncologist takes over your care using what you bring back — not a summary letter, the actual documents in a format they can use. This covers what to hand over, how to authenticate it if your doctor's institution asks, and where to find the official follow-up schedule rather than guessing at one.
What your home doctor actually needs
The full set is the same one you should leave Istanbul with — see the documents you must leave Istanbul with. The distinction that matters most: a home oncologist needs the structured data (the pathology report's actual findings, the DICOM imaging files, the exact drug names and doses), not a narrative summary written for a general audience.
Formats that matter
- Imaging: DICOM files on disc or via a download link, not just a printed or PDF radiology report — the actual images are what let your home radiologist compare against future scans.
- Pathology: the structured final report, with every marker and result as a discrete field, not paraphrased into prose.
- Medication: generic (not just brand) drug names, exact doses, and schedule — brand names available in Turkey may not match what your home pharmacy stocks.
Translation and authentication basics
Ask your home doctor’s office whether they require a certified translation, and if so, whether it needs to be done by a sworn/certified translator recognized in your home country — requirements vary by institution, so this is worth confirming before you leave rather than after. Turkey is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, and so are Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan — in most cases this means an official Turkish document can be authenticated for use abroad with an apostille (obtained from the relevant Turkish governor’s office) rather than full consular legalization. Confirm the specific requirement with the institution that will receive the documents.
Your follow-up schedule
Your written surveillance plan from Istanbul is the starting point, and your home oncologist adapts it to your case. For the general structure of cancer follow-up care — what a survivorship care plan is and what it typically covers — see the official NCI resource below rather than a schedule reproduced here from memory; the right interval for you is a clinical decision your doctor makes, not a fixed rule.