Patients work till they are bed-ridden.
By Dileep Thekkethil
A new study has come up with a shocking revelation that more than one-third of the total cancer patients with the most advanced form of the disease tend to work despite their life threatening illness.
The researchers have found that patients with a chronic form of cancer, who have only a slender chance of surviving, continue to do the job until they grow too sick and are bed-ridden.
The report that appeared in the research journal Cancer says the severity of the symptoms that shows in the patients is the most important factor that determine whether he or she will stop or continue working.
Dr. Amye Tevaarwerk, an oncologist with the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, the lead researcher, wrote, “The factor that associated most strongly with no longer working was a high symptom burden. It wasn’t any of these other things, like where your cancer is located or your gender or the treatment you are receiving.”
According to the currently available data, close to 4.8 million Americans, who are in the working age group have been diagnosed with cancer, this includes people who cannot be cured.
According to Tevaarwerk, there has not been much research on investigating how many people choose to remain on the job knowing that their numbers are limited.
In order to understand this, Tevaarwerk and her team of researchers analyzed data from a cancer research project that had the details of close to 3000 cancer patients with the most common forms of the solid tumor types – breast, prostate, colon or lung.
The researchers found that out of 668 people who were in their working age, with cancer spread to other parts of their body, 236, which makes 35%, were either working full-time or part-time.
Tevaarwerk said, “That is a fairly high number. These patients, who might have a life expectancy between a year and five years, continue to be gainfully employed.”
“Patients are probably working for a number of reasons,” she said. “Some might need the income or the access to health insurance. But, for others work provides a source of social support, a distraction from their health problems, and a sense of normalcy in their lives. It’s going to be a complicated mix,” she added.
Corinne Leach, MS Director of Cancer and Aging Research, Behavioral Research Center agreed with the findings of Tevaarwerk.
“Working can be a good thing for people,” Leach said. “It can be helpful financially, but also in terms of identity and remaining active. Some people may stop working so they can spend more time with their family or travel, but others may have renewed energy to tackle some issue at work that they want to complete while they still can.”
Even though, Tevaarwerk’s research team couldn’t say that people keep working due as the data wasn’t collected entirely by the team but the study authors who conducted statistical analysis of the patients found that their decision to work is influenced by several other factors.
The research team has clearly stated that many characters such as the type of cancer, the area to which it has spread or the type of treatment administered on the patient or the length of time they had been dealing with the disease, has no impact on the patient’s decision to work.
On the flip side, the severity of the cancer is one important factor that deter people from continuing the job, the study says.
Fatigue, drowsiness, memory problems and numbness were the symptoms most associated with cancer patients no longer working, the researchers found.
Tevaarwerk said that doctors can do a lot help cancer patients who want to keep working.
“I can’t change where your cancer is located, but I can sure control your symptoms, or at least we can try,” she said. “This is something that is modifiable.”
Based on the severity of the symptoms of the patient, doctors should have a “fairly frank discussion” about the likely course on how much he or she can work, Tevaarwerk said.
“If it’s something that they really want or have to do, and then we have to be aggressive in managing symptoms,” she said.