Cancer Can Ruin a Life, Even if You Survive

Cancer can really mess up a person’s life, even years after he or she has beaten the disease, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

Cancer survivors have poorer health, lose more days from work and have a generally lower quality of life than people who have never had cancer, the study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 9.8 million cancer patients and survivors are alive now in the United States. About 64 percent of adults and 79 percent of children now survive cancer for at least five years, the CDC says. These patients have not been studied much, but a series of reports have called for better coordination of care for cancer survivors, especially children. They have found that the harsh treatments often needed to beat cancer, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, can themselves have lasting effects on health. Robin Yabroff of the National Cancer Institute and colleagues at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality studied a questionnaire of 1,800 cancer survivors and nearly 5,500 people who never had cancer and matched for age, sex, and level of education. They found that 31 percent of cancer survivors reported having fair or poor health, compared to 18 percent of people who never had cancer. Only 13 percent of cancer survivors described their health as “excellent,” compared to 21.9 percent of non-patients, although a similar percentage described their health as “good” — 33 percent of cancer survivors and 29 percent of non-patients. “Survivors were more likely to have spent 10 or more days in bed in the past 12 months than control subjects (14 percent versus 7.7 percent),” the researchers wrote. “Cancer survivors were also more likely than control subjects to report limitations with arthritis or rheumatism, back or neck problems, fractures or bone or joint injuries, hypertension, or lung or breath problems than control subjects,” they added. But cancer survivors were no more likely to have heart problems, stroke, diabetes, depression, anxiety or other emotional problems, the survey found. The study included a range of cancer patients, including 16 percent who had only been diagnosed in the past year, 19 percent within 6 to 10 years and 27 percent who had survived 11 or more years.(Source: Journal of the National Cancer Institute: Reuters Health News: September 2004.)