Cancer Survivors Have Extra Health Issues

(February 4, 2010) - It would appear that surviving cancer (Read about "Cancer: What It Is") is just the beginning of health issues for patients. A recently published study found 245 older married women who survived cancer had more health problems as compared to a sample of 245 married women without cancer.

"There is a pressing need to study older cancer survivors," Aloen Townsend, the lead researcher, said. "It is critical to disentangle the experiences that are unique to older cancer survivors from experiences that are common to aging individuals."

Overall the cancer survivors had more health problems than the women without cancer. The survivors also reported higher levels of fatigue, physical limitations, more doctor visits and more days in bed for health reasons than the other group. Before controlling for other variables, they also reported more symptoms of depression. (Read about "Depressive Illnesses")

In both groups, significant predictors for depression were fatigue, pain and a lower education level.

After adjusting for health problems, fatigue and pain, both groups of women had similar depression levels, leading the researchers to note that higher depression levels found in cancer survivors in some prior studies may be due to the worse health, pain, and fatigue experienced by survivors.