What happens to cancer survivors attending a structured cancer survivorship clinic? Symptoms, quality of life and lifestyle changes over the first year at the Sydney Cancer Survivorship Centre clinic

• Published in: Supportive care in cancer Vol. 29; no. 3; pp. 1337 - 1345
• Main Authors: Vardy, J. L., Liew, A., Turner, J., Kerin-Ayres, K., Butler, S., Deguchi, C., Khatri, S., Wildbore, C., Mo, C., Hamayun, M., Dhillon, H. M., Malalasekera, A., Tan, S. Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01-03-2021; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adjuvant treatment; Aerobics; Analysis; Australia; Cancer; Cancer Care Facilities; Cancer Survivors - psychology; Exercise; Fatigue; Female; Gender differences; Health education; Humans; Life Style; Lifestyles; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Nursing; Nursing Research; Obesity; Oncology; Original Article; Overweight; Pain; Pain Medicine; Physical fitness; Quality of life; Quality of Life - psychology; Rehabilitation Medicine; Sleep disorders; Survivor; Survivorship; Time Factors; Weight control; Australia; Oncology; Exercise; Survivorship; Quality-of-life; Symptoms; Lifestyle behaviour
• ISSN: 0941-4355; 1433-7339
• DOI: 10.1007/s00520-020-05614-7

Background
Sydney Cancer Survivorship Centre (SCSC) clinic provides multidisciplinary care after primary adjuvant treatment, with ~ 40% of attendees continuing follow-up with SCSC.
Methods
SCSC survivors completed measures of symptoms, quality-of-life and lifestyle factors at initial visit (T1), first follow-up (T2) and 1 year (T3). Analyses used mixed effect models, adjusted for age, sex and tumour type.
Results
Data from 206 survivors (2013–2019) were included: 51% male; median age 63 years; tumour types colorectal 68%, breast 12%, upper gastrointestinal 12%, other 8%. Mean time from: T1 to T2, 3.6 months; T1 to T3, 11.8 months. Mean weight remained stable, but 45% (35/77) of overweight/obese survivors lost weight from T1 to T3. Moderately-intense aerobic exercise increased by 63 mins/week at T2, and 68 mins/week T3. Proportion meeting aerobic exercise guidelines increased from 20 to 41%. Resistance exercise increased by 26 mins/week at T2. Global quality-of-life was unchanged from T1 to T2, improving slightly by T3 (3.7-point increase), mainly in males. Mean distress scores were stable, but at T3 the proportion scoring 4+/10 had declined from 41 to 33%. At T3, improvements were seen in pain, fatigue and energy, but > 20% reported moderate–severe fatigue, pain or sleep disturbance. Proportion reporting 5+ moderate–severe symptoms declined from 35% at T1 to 26% at T3, remaining higher in women.
Conclusions
Survivors attending SCSC increased exercise by 3 months, and sustained it at 1 year. Most overweight/obese survivors avoided further weight gain. Survivors had relatively good quality-of-life, with improvement in many symptoms and lifestyle factors at 1 year.