Overcoming cancer is a difficult ordeal that does not end until the end of the disease. According to a study published in the British journal The Lancet Oncology, the anxiety of ex-patients two years after diagnosis is 27% higher than that of the general population and 50% after ten years.
Patients are not the only victims of cancer, their relatives also pay the costs, and even more. The study reveals that the anxiety level of the spouse rises to 40% while that of the patient reaches 28%. All these levels unify about two years after the illness, where the anxiety becomes the same in the ex-patient, his spouse and the general population, even if the risks of recurrence are an obvious source of stress.
According to the researchers, the main cause of anxiety for spouses lies in a double fear: that of death and that of separation. In addition, the feeling of helplessness in the face of cancer and the suffering of the loved one only makes matters worse.
Currently, treating physicians and associations such as the League against cancer are concentrating their efforts on helping the relatives of the sick. Given the number of cancers, which are expected to increase by 75% by 2030 according to forecasts published by the same journal, this type of support will become more and more necessary.
