Quality of life and stress response symptoms in long-term and recent spouses of testicular cancer survivors

Abstract

Quality of life and stress response symptoms in long-term and recent spouses of testicular cancer survivors Tuinman, MA; Fleer, J; Hoekstra, HJ; Sleijfer, DT; Hoekstra-Weebers, JEHM AbstractThe aim of this study was to gain insight into the quality of life (QoL) and stress response of female spouses of men cured of testicular cancer in the long-term. Time since treatment completion varied from 0.5 to 23.8 years. Two hundred and fifty nine testicular cancer survivors and their spouses completed the Dutch version of the MOS Short Form (SF)-36 and the Impact of Event Scale. QoL data from a reference group of women were used for comparison. Spouses who had relationship with the testicular cancer survivor before the diagnosis (spouses during testicular cancer) had better functioning scores than the reference group, especially with respect to the physical QoL domains. Spouses who had started a relationship after treatment (spouses after testicular cancer) experienced more problems with psychological QoL domains than spouses during testicular cancer and than the reference group. The stress response of spouses during testicular cancer was related to that of the testicular cancer survivors and to the extent of treatment they had received. Although stress response levels were low, spouses during testicular cancer reported more stress response than the testicular cancer survivors. Time since completion of treatment did not affect QoL or stress response. This study showed that spouses during testicular cancer had a good QoL and little stress response. Functioning of spouses after testicular cancer was poorer with respect to various QoL domains, particularly the psychological measures.

Life after cancer: couples’ and partners’ psychological adjustment and supportive care needs

“…In addition, although positive outcome levels were correlated in partners and survivors (supporting previous findings from prostate cancer survivors and their partners [53]), the actual agreement on the endorsement of individual items was low which supports previous findings regarding differences between partners' and patients' perspectives [13,37]. Differing perspectives may influence relationship dynamics and contribute towards relationship difficulties experienced by some couples after cancer [15,32,39,54]. In sum, findings indicate that partners and survivors experience both unique and shared needs and positive outcomes, but they evaluate these differently.…”

“…Pelusi [40] conducted a small phenomenological study in partners of breast cancer survivors who were on average nine and a half years post diagnosis and identified themes of vigilance, duty, rebuilding, role function, ensuring stability and structure, and finding meaning from the experience. Tuinman et al [54] surveyed testicular cancer survivors and their partners who were between 6 months and 23 years post diagnosis and found partners whose relationship had started before the cancer had better functioning than partners whose relationship started post cancer. Supportive care interventions cannot be limited to the treatment phase; identifying and addressing survivors' unmet needs has been identified as the new challenge for supportive care services [23,29,49].…”

Quality of life in partners of patients with cancer

“…The authors concluded that the effect of cancer on QOL of patients and their partners seemed to be temporary. In a different study, Tuinman [18] found that, if the relationship existed before the diagnosis of testicular cancer, spouses showed better functioning scores.…”

Quality of life among testis cancer survivors

“…Most studies indicate that overall health-related quality of life (QOL) is similar among testis cancer survivors and the general population [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Although QOL clearly deteriorates at the time of diagnosis and during treatment, it subsequently returns to normal levels, as defined by matched controls or the general age-matched population.…”