From problems with intimate life, to anxiety, to financial problems – such consequences of cancer or treatment last for decades in many cured people, reports the journal Cancer.
Such conclusions were reached by scientists from the University of Central Florida, who analyzed the responses of over 1,5 thousand people. people aged 24 to 97. All subjects in the past – i.e. two, five or 10 years earlier – had been treated for cancer. They were asked to indicate what problems they are struggling with and what their unmet needs are.
It turned out that the most common problems were physical – 38% indicated them. subjects. Problems with sexual intercourse and urinary incontinence, which were replaced by men after treatment for prostate cancer, were particularly common.
A common problem indicated by the respondents, regardless of the type of cancer they had treated in the past and the time elapsed since the end of therapy, was the fear of relapse.
Interestingly, 20 percent. of study participants, financial problems caused by medical expenses also persisted for a long time.
The number and type of mentioned difficulties were not related to the length of time since the end of anticancer therapy. The greatest number of unmet needs was indicated by women who had been treated for breast cancer in the past. The younger patients had more of them than the older ones.
“As a result of cancer, many patients cured of it lose their sense of control, have a lower quality of life and feel frustrated because the health system insufficiently helps them cope with these problems,” commented the lead author of the work, Prof. Mary Ann Burg.
She also hoped that the results of the latest study will help doctors better understand the difficulties that cancer survivors may face and develop better prevention and alleviation methods.
This is becoming an increasingly topical issue as more and more people being treated for cancer live for many years or even decades (both those considered cured and those whose cancer has been transformed into a chronic disease). For example, in the US it will be approximately 2024 million people in 19. (PAP)