The short answer
A simple daily symptom log can help you and your care team spot patterns during chemotherapy, radiation, or immunotherapy. A log is not a substitute for calling. For a fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher during chemotherapy, call your care team right away.
Log symptoms daily with severity ratings (mild, moderate, severe).
Track timing relative to your treatment cycle days.
Bring your symptom log to every oncology checkup visit.
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Immediate Answer
This page is for people in cancer treatment, and the people helping them, who want to keep a simple symptom log.
Tracking symptoms during treatment helps your oncology team act early. They can adjust anti-nausea drugs, pain medicines, and other supportive care before side effects get severe. A good log records:
- the date and time
- the treatment cycle day
- your temperature
- how bad the symptom is on a 1 to 10 scale
- what you took or tried
Daily Symptom Log Template
Here is a simple layout you can copy. The rows in italics are examples.
| Date / Time | Cycle Day | Temp (°F) | Symptom (e.g., Nausea, Fatigue, Pain) | Severity (1–10) | Action / Medicine Taken | Response / Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 24, 8 AM | Day 3 | 98.6 | Mild nausea | 3 / 10 | Ondansetron, as prescribed | Improved by 9 AM |
| July 24, 2 PM | Day 3 | 99.1 | Fatigue | 6 / 10 | 90-min nap in quiet room | Felt rested |
| July 24, 7 PM | Day 3 | 100.8 | Chills / Fever | 8 / 10 | Called Oncology Triage right away | Instructed to go to ER |
What Key Categories to Track
- Temperature & Chills: CDC says to take your temperature any time you feel warm, flushed, chilled or not well. Write it in your log. Ask your team what temperature to call about.
- Digestive Health: Note bowel movements, including frequency, diarrhea, or constipation. Note nausea levels too.
- Pain & Neuropathy: Log the location, the type (burning, aching, tingling), and whether pain medicine relieved it.
- Energy & Sleep: Track hours of sleep and how tired you feel.
When to get help sooner
A log is for spotting patterns. Some entries should never wait for the next visit.
- Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department if you have trouble breathing, chest pain, fainting, a seizure, or substantial bleeding or bleeding that will not stop. Tell the staff you are having cancer treatment, so you can be seen quickly. Do not drive yourself.
- Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department if you vomit blood or coffee-ground material, pass black or tarry stool, suddenly cannot urinate at all, or are suddenly confused or hard to wake.
- Call your care team right away, day or night, if you log a temperature of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher, or shaking chills, while you are on chemotherapy. CDC says a fever during chemotherapy is a medical emergency, and that fever may be the only sign of an infection, which can be life-threatening. It is not something to leave for the next appointment. If you cannot reach the team quickly, go to an emergency department or call 911. Tell them straight away that you are having chemotherapy.
- If you are on chemotherapy, a stem-cell transplant or CAR T, or have low white cells, call your care team right away, day or night, for chills, a sore throat or new cough, mouth sores, burning when you urinate, redness, swelling or pus around a port or catheter, or any other sign of infection. Do this even if your temperature is normal. A normal temperature is not permission to wait.
- Call your care team right away if you cannot keep fluids down, have diarrhea you cannot control, or pass very little urine.
- Call your care team within a day or two if a symptom you have been logging is climbing, or if pain medicine has stopped working. Call within a day or two as well if new numbness or tingling appears in your hands or feet.
Do not take an over-the-counter fever reducer before you call. It can hide a fever your team needs to know about. Ask your team which temperature they want reported for your regimen.
Sources
Common questions
What is the best format for tracking cancer side effects?
Whether you use a paper notebook, a spreadsheet, or a dedicated smartphone app, consistency is what matters. Log temperature, nausea severity, bowel movements, energy level, and any new pain.
Questions to ask your doctor
Being prepared helps you get the most out of your appointments. Save or print these questions.
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Your next step
Check common symptoms and when to consult a doctor.
Talk with a trained specialist or navigator
Cancer Explained provides educational guidance, but does not replace trained specialists, social workers, or your medical team.
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Free, confidential assistance from NCI Cancer Information Service via phone, chat, or email.
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Locate copay assistance foundations, grant programs, and lodging/travel support.
Find a clinical-trial specialist
Search matching studies and speak with NCI trial information specialists.
Get urgent help
Fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher during chemo, severe pain, or trouble breathing: call your cancer care team right away, day or night. Call 911 for an emergency.
Where to get help with this, by name
A hospital social worker or financial navigator is the best first call if you have one. If you do not, these organisations help at no cost to you.
- Patient Advocate Foundation — (800) 532-5274. Case managers take on insurance appeals, denials and medical debt with you. Free.
- TotalAssist (Patient Advocate Foundation's copay programme, merged with the PAN Foundation in 2026) — 866-512-3861. Help with medication copays, coinsurance and deductibles, insurance premiums, and office-visit and administration charges on the day of treatment, across nearly 150 conditions.
- CancerCare — 800-813-HOPE (4673). Oncology social workers, free counselling and support groups. Limited financial help with transport, home care, child care and lodging for people in active treatment who meet their income guidelines — funding is first-come, first-served, so call to ask what is open.
- Triage Cancer — 424-258-4628. Free legal and financial navigation: insurance, employment rights, disability.
- Blood Cancer United (formerly the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society) — (800) 955-4572. Information Specialists answer questions on treatment, insurance and financial problems.
- HealthCare.gov — 1-800-318-2596. For questions about the external review process — the independent review your insurer is required by law to accept.
Your state Department of Insurance regulates insurers and takes consumer complaints. On Medicare, your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) gives free one-to-one counselling. If a specific drug is the problem, ask the manufacturer about its patient assistance programme.
Phone numbers checked 31 July 2026. Programmes and eligibility change — if a number has moved, please tell us.
Plain-language explanation of the published sources cited on this page. AI-assisted, source-checked, not clinician-reviewed.
Last updated: 2026-09-29Next planned review: 2028-07-23
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How this page was created
Cancer Explained does not originate medical claims. Every page restates guidance already published by the National Cancer Institute, the CDC, the USPSTF and the FDA, in plain language, with the source cited so you can check the original yourself. AI does the translating and organizing; automated checks test claims, citations, clarity and safety before anything publishes, and this is translation and navigation, not clinical judgment. Nothing here is personal medical advice, and no page can account for your particular situation.
Editorial status: Source checked — This page was written with AI assistance and then compared with the sources listed on it, looking for statements those sources do not back up. That check is not a sentence-by-sentence record and can miss errors. It is not a medical review, and it does not confirm the page is complete or right for your situation.
Human medical review: not completed. Pages here are not signed off by a clinician before they publish. That is not an oversight we are quietly working around: we restate published guidance and cite it, so the authority belongs to the source rather than to us, and every page names where its claims come from — you can verify us instead of trusting us. Where a volunteer clinician has reviewed a page, their name and credentials appear on it; where no name appears, no clinician has checked it. We are glad to have reviewers and are recruiting them, and we do not hold pages back waiting for one. Use this site to understand your situation and to ask better questions of the people treating you.
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