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 Researchers found that patients who received chemo alongside others
who survived for five years or longer were more likely to survive
for at least five years themselves, while patients surrounded by
peers who survived for less than five years were also more likely to
die within five years of their diagnosis.
“Social influence in the chemotherapy ward matters, and specifically
it has both positive and negative effects,” lead author Jeff Lienert,
a fellow at the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute’s
Social and Behavioral and Research Branch, told Reuters Health in a
telephone interview. “It’s a stronger effect if the time is
concentrated among a few people, rather than spread out over a lot
of people.”
Cancer patients who receive chemotherapy intravenously typically
spend hours in an outpatient clinic or ward as the drug is infused,
over the course of several weeks. These wards often have an open
design, so patients see others receiving treatment and may interact
with them.
Studies have found that cancer patients with stronger social
networks may live longer, particularly female patients, Lienert and
his team write in the journal Network Science. In the new study,
they investigated whether social encounters in the chemotherapy ward
might have also an impact on patients’ survival.
They studied patients treated at one UK hospital’s chemo ward, which
consisted of two treatment rooms with 10 beds and six chairs
arranged in a circle, along with privacy screens.
Lienert and his team used statistical techniques to build a network
showing how much time 4,691 patients treated from January 1, 2000 to
January 1, 2009 spent in one another’s company while receiving
treatment.
Among the patients who were in the ward with others who died within
five years of chemo, 72 percent also died within five years. But
among patients who encountered another patient who survived for five
years or longer, 68 percent died within five years.
The researchers estimate that patients who were isolated from others
while receiving chemo would have had a 69.5 percent chance of
surviving for five years. Thus the effect of spending time with
people who survived longer is approximately an extra 2 percent
improvement in survival odds. For comparison, choice of chemotherapy
drug is estimated to have about an 8 percent effect on survival, the
study team notes.
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While an extra 2 percent chance of survival compared to isolation
may not seem like much, Lienert pointed out, in the current study
that added up to about 100 additional survivors.
The researchers tried to account for other factors that might
explain this survival difference, including the fact that some
patients might have known each other already, so their friendship
outside the chemo ward would likely be the source of any positive
effects.
Another possibility is that differences in nurses working in the
chemo ward at different times have an effect, but if that’s true,
then the study detected a “meaningful nurse effect” that hasn’t been
previously reported and should be studied further, the authors
write.
Most likely, Lienert and his colleagues suggest, the differences
they observed are due to stress. It is likely to be stressful to see
other cancer patients who are not faring well, while it may ease
stress to see others whose treatment seems to be more successful,
they explain.
Trying to reorganize chemotherapy wards and patient scheduling in
order to take advantage of the findings would be a complex
proposition with the potential for unintended consequences, the
researcher note. But there are simple ways to take advantage of the
social survival boost seen in the study, Lienert said.
For example, cancer survivors could volunteer to spend time with
people receiving chemotherapy, and cancer patients can ask a
supportive friend or family member to accompany them. “That’s
something that patients can control on their own that would take
advantage of these results,” Lienert said.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2vmnrIQ Network Science, online July 12, 2017.
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