Study finds high quality of life after colon cancer

Colorectal-cancer patients who are in remission for two to three years following diagnosis tend to have a very high quality of life that is comparable to that of their peers without colon cancer, according to a study by researchers at the UW and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

The study, published in the March 15 issue of CANCER, also found that among those whose treatment is successful, quality of life does not appear to be influenced substantially by the stage of the cancer when it is diagnosed.

Perhaps most notably, having a colostomy appliance does not appear to significantly lower quality of life for those who survive beyond two years, according to principal investigator Dr. Scott Ramsey, UW assistant professor of medicine and health services and an assistant member of the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division.

“We think this is because people just get used to having a colostomy and do fine. Having a colostomy appliance does not impair their ability to get around or do what they want to do,” he says.

Ramsey and colleagues surveyed 173 colorectal-cancer survivors identified through the Cancer Surveillance System, a registry of documented cancer cases for residents of western Washington. The surveillance system is part of the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. The average age of the study participants was 70; all had colorectal cancer recorded as their first, or primary, malignancy.

Patients were selected to represent all stages of colorectal cancer and a wide range of times since diagnosis, from 13 months to more than five years.

More than three-quarters of the respondents (77 percent) rated their health as “good to excellent.” By comparison, 83 percent of age-matched respondents to a national health and nutrition survey reported their health as good to excellent.

Although quality of life varied considerably in the first two years following diagnosis, average ratings increased substantially and showed little variation after the third year.

However, those with low incomes had somewhat lower scores than others responding to the survey. An important limitation of the survey, Ramsey says, is the possibility that those who responded may have been the healthiest of survivors who were initially contacted. ¶

Kristen Woodward, FHCRC