Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul 25;28(4):2812-2822.
doi: 10.3390/curroncol28040246.

Post-Treatment Adverse Health Correlates among Prostate Cancer Survivors in a Sample of Men Residing in Atlantic Canada

Gabriela Ilie  1   2   3 , Robert Rutledge  3 , Ellen Sweeney  4
Affiliations

Post-Treatment Adverse Health Correlates among Prostate Cancer Survivors in a Sample of Men Residing in Atlantic Canada

Gabriela Ilie et al. Curr Oncol. .

Abstract

Background: Recent large population-based studies have shed light on an association between prostate cancer (PCa) survivorship and mental health, which emerged when the comparison group was either men without a history of cancer or those with any other type of cancer except prostate. Here we examine the role of surgery alone, compared to other types of treatment modalities in this association in a population-based sample of men with prostate or other types of cancer.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis was conducted on a subsample of 632 male participants aged 36-69 from the 2009-2015 survey cycle of the Atlantic PATH cohort study. The primary outcomes were the presence of mild, moderate or severe depression or anxiety indicators and were assessed using the seven-item generalized anxiety disorder (GAD-7) scale and the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), respectively. The presence of a lifetime history of PCa or other form of cancer (except PCa) was the main predictor variable and was assessed in cancer treatment modality (surgery or other types of treatment modalities) stratified analyses. Covariates included age, marital status, household income, comorbidity, and survivorship time.

Results: The presence of depression in this sample was prevalent among 17.7% of men, and of anxiety among 9.3% of men. Survivors who were treated with surgery for their PCa diagnosis had 7.55 statistically significantly higher odds of screening positive for current depression symptoms compared with those of other forms of cancer in controlled analyses. These differences were not observed for anxiety.

Conclusions: These findings emphasize the need for multidisciplinary survivorship care plans among PCa patients, especially those who undergo surgery. Targeted programming aimed at prioritizing and delivering comprehensive mental health support to PCa survivors early in the survivorship journey is justified.

Keywords: anxiety; cancer; depression; mental health; prostate cancer; psychosocial oncology; quality of life; survivorship.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

References

    1. Torre L.A., Bray F., Siegel R.A., Ferlay J., Lortet-Tieulent J., Jemal A. Global cancer statistics, 2012. CA Cancer J. Clin. 2015;65:87–108. doi: 10.3322/caac.21262. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Siegel R., DeSantis C., Virgo K., Stein K., Mariotto A., Smith T., Cooper D., Gansler T., Lerro C., Fedewa S., et al. Cancer treatment and survivorship statistics, 2012. CA Cancer J. Clin. 2012;62:220. doi: 10.3322/caac.21149. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Donovan J.L., Hamdy F.C., Lane J.A., Mason M., Metcalfe C., Walsh E., Blazeby J.M., Peters T.J., Holding P., Bonnington S., et al. Patient-Reported Outcomes after Monitoring, Surgery, or Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 2016;375:1425–1437. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1606221. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Klaassen Z., Arora K., Wilson S.N., King S.A., Madi R., Neal D.E., Kurdyak P., Kulkarni G.S., Lewis R.W., Terris M.K. Decreasing suicide risk among patients with prostate cancer: Implications for depression, erectile dysfunction, and suicidal ideation screening. Urol. Oncol. Semin. ORI. 2018;36:60–66. doi: 10.1016/j.urolonc.2017.09.007. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lin P.H., Liu J.M., Hsu R.J., Chuang H.C., Chang S.W., Pang S.T., Chang Y.H., Chuang C.K., Lin S.K. Depression negatively impacts survival of patients with metastatic prostate cancer. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health. 2018;15:2148. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15102148. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types