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. 2024 Dec 11;31(12):7903-7913.
doi: 10.3390/curroncol31120582.

Longitudinal Follow-Up of the Psychological Well-Being of Patients with Colorectal Cancer: Final Analysis of PICO-SM

Konstantinos Kamposioras  1 , Panagiotis Ntellas  2 , Katerina Dadouli  3 , Eleftherios Christodoulis  1 , Marios Adamou  4 , Daniel Anderson  5 , Anup Shanthappa  1 , Jacqueline Connell  1 , Joseph Williams  1   6 , Lilly Simpson  1 , Theodora Germetaki  1 , Michael Braun  1 , Jorge Barriuso  1   7   8 , Jurjees Hasan  1 , Saifee Mullamitha  1 , Kalena Marti  1 , Mark Saunders  9 , Kok Haw Jonathan Lim  7   10
Affiliations

Longitudinal Follow-Up of the Psychological Well-Being of Patients with Colorectal Cancer: Final Analysis of PICO-SM

Konstantinos Kamposioras et al. Curr Oncol. .

Abstract

PICO-SM was a prospective longitudinal study investigating the psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with colorectal cancer treated in a large UK tertiary cancer centre. Here, we present the impact of the third wave of the pandemic (December 2021 to February 2022), when the Omicron variant became prevalent in the UK, and the complete longitudinal comparison across the entire duration of this study. Patients were invited to complete a questionnaire, including screening psychometric tools. In total, n = 312 patients were included in the final analysis. Specifically, in this Omicron-predominant wave, n = 96 patients were studied in detail: the mean age was 64 years, 64% were male, 33% reported poor well-being, 27% anxiety, 11% depressive symptoms, and 3% trauma-related symptoms. The participants who had investigations cancelled (OR 9.22, 95% CI 1.09-77.85; p = 0.041) or felt that the pandemic would affect their mental health (OR 3.82, 95% CI 1.96-7.44; p < 0.001) had an increased risk of anxiety according to a multivariate analysis. Similarly, independent predictors of poor well-being included concern that the pandemic would affect their cancer treatment (OR 4.59, 95% CI 1.03-20.56; p = 0.046) or mental health (OR 3.90, 95% CI 1.38-11.03; p = 0.010). The psychological distress experienced by patients, particularly anxiety, remained high during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. These results align with our previously reported findings, emphasising the importance of continuing cancer treatment amidst an ongoing humanitarian emergency.

Keywords: COVID-19; anxiety; colorectal cancer; depression; psychological distress.

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Conflict of interest statement

J.B. reports grants and non-financial support from Ipsen, non-financial support from Novartis, personal fees and non-financial support from Pfizer, non-financial support from AAA, non-financial support from Nanostring, Unites States, and personal fees from Nutricia, Netherlands, outside the submitted work. M.S. reports personal fees from Servier Global, Merck, UK, and Amgen, UK, outside the submitted work. All other authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of the data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The psychological impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevalence of (A) anxiety, (B) depressive symptoms, (C) poor well-being, and (D) trauma-related symptoms in patients with colorectal cancer (n = 96). (E) Comparison of the key outcome variables for the longitudinal subgroup of n = 57 participants followed-up across two time points. Abbreviations: GAD-7, Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale; PC-PTSD-5, Primary Care Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder-5; PHQ-9, Patient Health Questionnaire-9; WHO-5, World Health Organization Well-being Index; and ns, not significant.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Levels of support participants reported they had received during the COVID-19 pandemic (n = 96). See Supplementary Table S2 for further details.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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