Symptom Clusters in Survivorship and Their Impact on Ability to Work among Cancer Survivors

Abstract

Background: Cancer survivors often experience a range of symptoms after treatment which can impact their quality of life. Symptoms may cluster or co-occur. We aimed to investigate how symptoms and symptom clusters impact the ability to work among cancer survivors. Methods: We used symptom severity data and ability to work data routinely collected from cancer survivors attending a survivorship clinic after primary treatment with curative intent. We defined symptom clusters using single linkage and a threshold on the rescaled distances of <10. We then conducted a logistic regression to examine how symptoms and symptom clusters were related to the ability to work. Results: We analysed data from 561 cancer survivors, mean age 58 years and 1.5 years post diagnosis, with mixed diagnoses including breast (40.5%), colorectal (32.3%), and haematological cancers (15.3%). Limitations to work ability were reported by 34.9% of participants. Survivors experiencing pain, emotional, and cognitive symptom clusters were 14–17% more likely to report limitations in their ability to work. Older survivors and those with a higher stage disease were more likely to report limitations in their ability to work. Conclusion: A better understanding and management of symptom severity and symptom clusters may help the sizable proportion of cancer survivors experiencing symptoms to participate in work after treatment.