Cancer patients are not getting the emotional support they need to cope with the disease, says a new report by Macmillan Cancer Support. As well as high levels of depression and anxiety, cancer patients and carers reported relationship problems including divorce and separation. 

 Worried Sick – the emotional impact of cancer published by Macmillan today (5 April 2006), found that almost half of cancer patients (49%) experienced depression and over three quarters (75%) suffered anxiety - a fifth (19%) had even felt abandoned. In fact for more than four in 10 patients (45%) it’s not the physical effects of the disease but the emotional ones that are the most difficult to cope with. The report looks in depth at the emotional, practical and relationship fallout that can follow a cancer diagnosis – problems that can continue even after the patient has recovered from the disease.

Relationship difficulties

The report found that almost a third of people with cancer (32%) said that their relationships are put under ‘enormous’ strain and over a quarter (26%) said they experienced real difficulties in their relationships with their partner as a result of their cancer diagnosis. A quarter (25%) of these people (7% of people with cancer surveyed) said that they had broken up with their partner as a result of their cancer and four in ten (43%) people living with cancer said that their sex life had suffered because they had cancer.

One in three of us will get cancer at some point in our lives, and though cancer is still the UK’s biggest killer, the number of people living with cancer continues to rise⁽¹⁾. 

Each year in the UK more than 275,000 people are diagnosed with cancer and an estimated 1.2 million people in the UK today have at one time received a cancer diagnosis.

Increasingly over recent years cancer treatment is given on an outpatient basis, via frequent and prolonged outpatient visits for chemotherapy or radiotherapy, for example.

Feeling abandoned by health system

All the more worrying then that the report found a quarter (26%) of people with cancer said they feel abandoned by the health system when not in hospital. Instead cancer patients are reliant on the practical and emotional support of carers – mostly partners or family – nearly all of whom (95%) said they put the needs of the person with cancer above their own needs. 

But at what cost? A third (36%) of carers felt their relationships with the person who has cancer, and with family and friends, were put under ‘enormous’ strain and almost a quarter (24%) felt abandoned at some stage. 

Peter Cardy, Macmillan Cancer Support’s Chief Executive, comments: ‘This groundbreaking report paints a vivid picture of the overwhelming impact a cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment has on the lives of the person diagnosed, and their family and friends. And it exposes shocking gaps in the support offered to cancer patients and their loved ones.’

Macmillan Cancer Support

The report is published alongside the announcement that Macmillan has changed its name to Macmillan Cancer Support (from Macmillan Cancer Relief) as the charity pledges to reach more cancer patients and carers and offer them the support they need. The charity is both expanding its provision and raising awareness of the broad range of services it already offers across the UK.

Peter Cardy continues: ‘It’s vital that people know what Macmillan Cancer Support does – so they can access the emotional, practical and financial support we offer, both via our iconic nurses and other professionals and increasingly our website, information centres and helplines. And we are now expanding our services to ensure we can reach even more people affected by cancer. But we can’t do it alone, we call on the governments of the four UK nations, and the NHS, to create and fund services that meet the unmet needs identified by this report. And on the public to help Macmillan expand to reach more of the people who need us.’

The charity has an information pack for the public, available from Freephone 0800 500 800.

(1) The number of people living with cancer continues to rise as the population ages and survival improves.

For further media information contact Liz North/Kirsty Warwick, Macmillan Cancer Support’s Press Office on 020 7840 7808 or 020 7840 7821 (out of hours mobile 07801 307 068)

Notes to Editors:

1. About Macmillan Cancer Support

Macmillan Cancer Support improves the lives of people affected by cancer, providing practical, medical, emotional and financial support.

2.  About OLR

Opinion Leader Research is a research-based consultancy offering a range of qualitative, quantitative, deliberative and collaborative methods. Opinion Leader Research has over 12 years' experience involving people in meaningful decision-making. Clients include some of Britain's top companies, major charities, media organisations, as well as many government departments and public bodies. 

3. Research Methodology:

In total, 1,751 people took part in our research between December 2005 and February 2006.  The current UK demography of people with cancer and people affected by cancer is not yet known – there is no UK-wide data to this effect. However, we have ensured that we capture the diversity of the UK demography through the samples. In total, Macmillan Cancer Support spoke to 606 people with cancer (who have received the diagnosis), 550 people affected by cancer (family members and friends who often help them cope with their cancer experience), and 595 people not affected by cancer.

4. The report, Worried Sick – the emotional impact of cancer, also found:

Nobody to talk to

A disturbing six in ten (58%) of people with cancer felt their emotional needs were not looked after as much as their physical needs. And while nearly half (49%) of people with cancer want or need information, advice or support about the emotional aspects of a cancer diagnosis; four in ten (41%) of these people are not able to get it. Tragically a quarter (24%) of people with cancer feel that they have nobody to talk to.

Gaps in support for depression and anxiety

Perhaps unsurprisingly the Worried Sick research found that three quarters of people with cancer (75%) experience anxiety as a result of their cancer diagnosis - but worryingly less than half (44%) receive any information, advice, support or treatment, and of the nearly half (49%) of people with cancer say they experience depression as a result of their cancer, this rises to a shocking 60%. However people who did manage to access support and information rated it as ‘good’.

Confused by the system

The report found that over a third of people with cancer (37%) find the whole cancer system ‘confusing’, and a quarter (25%) do not feel confident about how and where to access all the health services available.

5. What cancer patients told researchers:

• ‘My marriage ending, my job ending (went back to work but could not cope with the pressures), feeling a burden on society and feeling weak in the head for not being able to get on with life - I am a big bloke who used to play rugby and four years after treatment not being able to talk to people and spending time crying was and still is unbelievable.’
•  ‘My husband leaving me, because he could not cope with my cancer when it came back the second time.’

Attachments and links:

Access a copy of the report (in English)

Access a copy of the report (in Welsh)

Key findings document