Most cancer survivors able to stay on the job

Most working-age cancer survivors fare well enough to remain at their jobs in the first few years after treatment, according to a new study.

In particular, researchers found, survivors of certain cancers that can be detected early, including breast and prostate tumors and melanomas, had the lowest risk of having to quit work for ongoing problems related to their disease.

On the other hand, men and women who had been treated for tumors of the central nervous system, head and neck, blood or lymph system had the highest rates of work disability and unemployment in the four years following therapy.

The findings suggest there are some cancer patients who need more help in facing potential problems in getting back to work, the study authors note.

Employment after cancer is another way of measuring how well people fare after treatment for the disease, according to Dr. Pamela Farley Short of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, the study's lead author.

Being able to work, she told Reuters Health, is important not only financially, but also in terms of social relationships and a person's sense of identity.

The new findings, Short said, can be viewed as largely "good" news, but they also highlight the fact that some cancer survivors - about 20 percent in this study - have ongoing problems that affect their ability to work.

Short and her colleagues report the findings in the current issue of the journal Cancer.

The study is based on data from more than 1,400 cancer survivors treated at four medical centers between 1997 and 1999. Overall, the researchers estimate, 13 percent of patients who had jobs at the time of their diagnosis had to quit working for cancer-related reasons within four years of their diagnosis.

About 40 percent of patients stopped working during their treatment, but 84 percent returned to their jobs - usually in the first year after diagnosis. Overall, 20 percent of the men and women reported some type of work disability, though half continued to work despite their limitations.

Patients treated for cancers of the breast, prostate, thyroid, uterus and skin (melanoma) were the least likely to suffer from a work disability or to leave their jobs after treatment.

Survivors of some other cancers did not fare as well. Those treated for tumors of the brain or spinal cord, for example, had the highest rates of work disability and one of the highest resignation rates. Men and women with late-stage lymphoma, blood cancers such as leukemia, or head and neck cancers, such as tumors of the mouth, throat or nasal cavity, were also at greater risk of work disability and unemployment.