Mumbai, April 3 (IANS): Being diagnosed with cancer is not a death sentence, says actress and cancer survivor Manisha Koirala, but adds that the fear of it coming back lurks at the back of your mind.

"I didn't care about my health before, but now I take a lot of care of my health. But there is always a fear whether the cancer will come back, so I now know how to deal with it," said the 43-year-old who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2012. She successfully battled the disease.

"We have to go step by step," she told reporters Thursday at the unveiling of the 7th anniversary cover of Prevention, a health magazine.

"Many people tend to lose hope when they are diagnosed with cancer ... they tend to give up. There is a stigma attached to cancer but I would like to say cancer is not a death sentence, there is a hope," said the actress, who was seen in hits like "Dil Se" and "Bombay".

She praises the film fraternity for their support while she was undergoing treatment in New York.

"I couldn't attend the calls as I was undergoing treatment but I used to get calls from Tabu, Gulshan Grover, Shatrughan Sinha and they used to speak to my family about my health," said the actress who returned here in June last year after being cured.