I have yearly (which has been moved to every two years now that I have held a remission for a year.) endoscopies where biopsys are taken and I also see my doctor take blood tests every 6 months to a year. I also have yearly mamagrams and so on. I will have to see my cancer specialist and have blood work done most likely at intervals set by my treatment team for the rest of my life.

Each type of cancer has its own treatment protocal and followup care protocals. To find out what yours or your loved ones is you can ask the treatment specialist that is being seen in your local area.

As for the word survivor -

For some cancers there is no cure but the person can be treated and hold remissions. in some cancers if the person holds a remission for 7 years they are considered cured.

In any case my doctors say that if the person achieves a remission they are considered surviving that cancer.

The cancer specialists that I have contact with say It kind of goes back to the terms survivor and victim. A person is considered a victim when they are at the moment going through the problem and a survivor once they are no longer in that situation for example

a victim of a car crash is the person in the car as the car is crashing.

Since the person did not die from the crash they are considered a survivor of the car crash.

A sexual abuse victim is a person being sexually abused
a sexual abuse survivor is a person no longer being abused (they didn't physically die they lived through it)

A cancer victim is a person going through having cancer in the body

a cancer survivor is a person who did not die of that cancer - they achieved a remission, they had the tumor removed and other treatments were successful in killing off the cancer cells.

I am a survivor because I have not yet died of my cancer and because I am at the moment in remission.