Premium
The impact of childhood cancer: Perceptions of adult survivors
Author(s) -
Willard Victoria W.,
Klosky James L.,
Li Chenghong,
Srivastava Deo Kumar,
Brinkman Tara M.,
Robison Leslie L.,
Hudson Melissa M.,
Phipps Sean
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/cncr.30514
Subject(s) - medicine , childhood cancer , cancer , perception , gerontology , neuroscience , biology
BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to describe perceptions and associated risk factors of the impact of cancer on functional outcomes, including social relationships, exercise, finances, and religion, among adult survivors of childhood cancer. METHODS Evaluable participants included 3001 adult survivors (mean age, 32.5 years; range, 18.3‐63.8 years; 24.1 years from diagnosis; 50.8% male; 84.9% Caucasian) who were enrolled in the St. Jude Lifetime Cohort study. Perceptions of the impact of cancer were assessed using the Brief Cancer Impact Assessment (BCIA). Regression models were used to evaluate risk factors for functional outcomes. RESULTS The median response on the BCIA was a perception that cancer had minimal impact on the domains assessed. Approximately 33.1% to 46.6% of survivors indicated this response across the 4 subscales, although responses ranged from very positive to very negative impact. Other than diagnosis (with survivors of brain tumors generally indicating a more negative impact of cancer, with subscale estimates of −1.25 for caregiving and finance and −1.01 for social and emotional and an odds ratio of 1.83 for exercise and diet), most variability was because of demographic factors, including sex, age, race, education, and employment. CONCLUSIONS The current findings highlight that many long‐term adult survivors perceive minimal impact of childhood cancer on functional aspects of adulthood, including caregiving, finances, exercise, social‐emotional relationships, and religion. This suggests that survivors may not be focusing on the influence of likely physical and psychological late effects of their disease in their day‐to‐day lives. For those who do perceive a negative impact, variability in responses suggests that there are of survivors who may benefit from interventions focused on the achievement of functional goals. Cancer 2017;123:1625–1634. © 2017 American Cancer Society .