Cancer Survivors Rate Quality of Life

A survey by a team of Australian researchers has found that a majority of cancer survivors rate their overall quality of life as good, despite a lingering uncertainty and fear of recurrence.

Writing in the journal Psycho-Oncology, researchers Robyn Leake, Lyle Gurrin and Ian Hammond of King Edward Memorial Hospital in Western Australia reported on their survey of 202 patients who had been treated for gynecological cancers and were considered at low risk for recurrence.

When given a quality of life assessment with possible scores ranging from 22 to 154, the average score for the cancer survivors was 134. The assessment included feelings about body image, physical comfort, sexual function, fear of recurrence, and other factors.

They found that less than a quarter of the respondents (22 percent) expressed a fear of cancer recurrence, and this fear was greater in younger women. More than half of the women (57 percent) said they had not experienced any change in sexual function since their treatment ended. However, patients living with partners expressed more dissatisfaction with their post-treatment sexuality than single women.

The researchers also surveyed doctors to find out how they assessed the quality of life of their patients. Interestingly, they found that physicians tended to rate their patients' quality of life lower than the patients themselves.

Stress and the Immune System

A recent study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute concluded that the stress of being diagnosed with breast cancer can actually impact a woman's immune system and possibly her ability to recover from the disease.

Barbara Andersen, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Ohio State University in Columbus, studied 116 newly diagnosed women with breast cancer. She found that those with the greatest stress levels had reductions in three important measures of immune-cell activity, compared with women who reported lower stress levels.

Researchers believe stress may cause the immune system to release hormones that alter the function of disease-fighting immune cells. Stress may also increase a person's smoking or drinking habits, or cause a loss of sleep, all of which may impair immune function.

SOURCES:
Psycho-Oncology, September 2001; 10:428-435
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 1999; 91:1480-1486

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