Quality of life in long-term cancer survivors

Abstract

Purpose/objectives: To describe the quality of life (QOL) of long-term cancer survivors.

Design: Descriptive, mailed survey.

Setting: Membership of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship (NCCS), which is a nonprofit, peer-support network for people living with cancer.

Sample: 687 (57%) of the 1,200 members of NCCS completed the survey. The mean age of the sample was 49.6 years; 81% were female. The predominant cancer diagnoses were breast (43%), lymphoma (9%), ovarian (8%), and Hodgkin's disease (8%).

Methods: Mailed survey using three instruments: a demographic tool, the Quality of Life-Cancer Survivors (QOL-CS) tool, and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) tool.

Main research variables: Subscale and individual items of QOL including physical, psychological, social, and spiritual well-being.

Findings: Results include areas of positive effects for cancer survivors and continued demands of survivorship. Based on scoring of 0 (worst outcome) to 10 (best outcome), cancer survivors' mean QOL-CS subscores were 5.88 for psychological well-being, 6.59 for spiritual well-being, 6.62 for social well-being, and 7.78 for physical well-being. Several demographic factors (e.g., evidence of active disease; female gender; presence of spouse/partner or children; length of time since diagnosis; income) had significant influence on QOL.

Conclusions: Cancer survivors experienced altered lives and had needs related to fear of recurrence and facing the spiritual aspects of having survived a life-threatening illness.

Implications for nursing practice: The growing population of cancer survivors has long-term needs for nursing care that address multidimensional aspects of QOL.