Being in remission from your cancer does not mean that all problems are solved. Study shows cancer survivors still complain of unmet physical and psychological needs
Young people have more unmet needs than older people. This is what emerges from an American study published on January 11 in the journal Cancer. Finally, it is rather one of the conclusions of a very rich survey conducted in 2010 by the American Cancer Society (ACS) among 9105 cancer survivors (breast, prostate, colorectal, bladder, uterus, skin –melanoma-) diagnosed 2, 5 or 10 years ago. A survey where they were asked an open-ended question: “Please tell us about any of your needs that you now have as a cancer survivor that are not met for you.”
In 80% of the cases, the patients declared either that they did not have a particular need, or that they did not know or the content of their response was not clearly associated with an unmet need (for example the survivor spoke of his well-being).
Pain, sexual dysfunction, financial need …
Mary Ann Burg, of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, and her colleagues therefore focused on the remaining 1,514 responses where patients (aged 24 to 97, female in 65% of cases) had expressed unrequired needs. Covered. From these responses, the researchers identified 16 themes and ranked them according to their importance.
In pole position, the physical needs mentioned in 38% of cases: pain, symptoms, sexual dysfunction and body care (such as nutrition, exercise and rest). Second on the list: financial needs (20% of cases), and third, information and education (19.5% of cases, concerning follow-up care or the care that patients can administer by themselves. same, medical research in particular on cancer, cancer risks, causes and prevention).
The study also showed that the number and type of themes identified did not vary depending on the length of time since treatment. In contrast, unmet needs decreased with age.
No more unmet needs after breast cancer
In addition, breast cancer survivors identified more unmet needs (2.96) than other survivors (2.88 on average overall). Men and especially prostate cancer survivors had a greater need for personal control. This was the fourth theme on the list (16.4%). It concerns the ability to maintain one’s physical and social autonomy (sexual function, ability to project oneself, etc.). Thus, 29.8% of men against 9.4% of women mentioned this theme and 37.9% of prostate cancer survivors, against for example 8.5% of women who had breast cancer.
In France, in 2014, the National Cancer Institute (Inca) and the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) unveiled the results of a survey of 4,000 cancer patients and showed that their pathology worsened the inequalities two years after diagnosis.
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