Functional Outcomes and Life Satisfaction in Long-Term Survivors of Pediatric Sarcomas

Life satisfaction in adult survivors of cancer during adolescence: what contributes to the latter satisfaction with life?

“…Moreover, domains of the health-related LS that reflect psychological well-being such as 'ability to relax/stay on an even kneel', 'energy/zest for life', and 'freedom from anxiety' are also negatively affected and show small to moderate effect sizes as well (d [ -.33). Findings on psychological well-being in our study population, which are reported elsewhere, demonstrate that longterm survivors of cancer with onset during adolescence are at great risk for clinically relevant symptoms of depression, Table 3 Variables associated with the survivors' general (n = 812) and health-related LS (n = 811), as indicated by the final multiple regression models Variables entered in the regression analysis: (a) Socio-demographic variables: gender (1), educational attainment (2), unemployment (3), and being unmarried (4); (b) Medical variables: time since diagnosis (5), diagnosis (type of illness was dummy-coded so that each illness type was entered as a dichotomous variable: brain tumor (6), leukemia (7), solid tumor (8)), duration of treatment (9), treatment (by means of the following dummy-coded variables: operation (10), radiotherapy (11), chemotherapy (12)), amount of somatic late effects (13); (c) Psychological variables: symptoms of posttraumatic stress (14), depression (15), anxiety (16), and posttraumatic growth (17) anxiety, and posttraumatic stress [47]. The higher amount of psychological distress seems to be reflected in the reduced satisfaction with health.…”

“…There are only few studies that directly investigated satisfaction with life in survivors of childhood cancer [13][14][15]. However, when doing so, only a small part of the concept has been brought into focus and the individuals' perceived importance of the various life domains has been neglected.…”

“…Nevertheless, there are findings which reveal that-although emotional aspects of QoL are not affected by the aftermath of the cancer experience-physical domains are slightly reduced [12] presumably due to adverse late effects. Even though survivors are confronted with functional physical and psychosocial limitations, they seem to be generally satisfied with their present and future life, when being directly asked [13][14][15]. These findings may be interpreted as an adaptation to the traumatic cancer experience in terms of positive coping [16,17] or 'posttraumatic growth' [18,19].…”

The Role of Exercise in Pediatric and Adolescent Cancers: A Review of Assessments and Suggestions for Clinical Implementation

“…It is clear that psychological or social consequences interfere with quality of life (QoL), which comprises elements of physical, functional, social, and psychological health [21,22,47,[55][56][57][58]. QoL may be affected by the level of integration into society, as measured by the survivors' probability (compared to age and sex-matched general population peers) of securing employment or health insurance, or of marrying [57].…”

“…As a result, adult survivors of childhood cancer may suffer from cardiomyopathy, heart valve and conduction disorders [14,15], increased cardiovascular risk factors including hypertension, dyslipidemia [16][17][18], and obesity [19,20], pulmonary disorders [21,22], endocrine disorders [23] including hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal disorders [24], diabetes mellitus [25], ovarian and Leydig cell dysfunction [26], and hypothyroidism [27]. Survivors of childhood cancer are also at increased risk for neurocognitive and neurosensory impairment including ocular degeneration, hearing loss and neuropathy [28][29][30][31], metabolic disturbances (abnormal blood counts, liver and kidney dysfunction, and osteoporosis) [28][29][30]32,33], transfusion-associated infections [30], and increased risk of subsequent neoplasm [14].…”