Surviving cancer does not mean the end of suffering since many US cancer survivors have to deal with physical and mental issues which continue to haunt them long after being cured.
This has been the finding of a new study which involved more than 1500 cancer survivors who were asked to complete a survey asking about their unmet needs. More than one third pointed to physical problems related to cancer or their treatment.
Dr. James Ferrara, chair of cancer medicine at Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai in New York City said that it is common notion that patients who have unmet needs but believe that it will diminish with the passage of time. However the current study points to the opposite.
One very common problem which is seen in prostate cancer survivors is incontinence and sexual problems. Another aspect which came into sharp focus, especially in Black and Hispanic survivors is the toll on financial health after surviving cancer. 20% of the respondents said that they continued to have problem in paying bills.
Another major worry among the respondents was the possibility of the cancer recurring regardless of the type of cancer or the years they have survived.
Study author Mary Ann Burg, from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, said in a journal news release, “Overall, we found that cancer survivors are often caught off guard by the lingering problems they experience after cancer treatment.”