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Cross-sectional study of sex differences in psychosocial quality of life of long-term melanoma survivors

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Abstract

Purpose

A cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment can have a significant impact on an individual’s quality of life. Differences in quality of life by sex among long-term melanoma survivors remain unclear. The objective of this study was to describe sex differences in cancer-specific psychosocial quality of life of long-term melanoma survivors.

Methods

Melanoma survivors 7–10 years post-diagnosis from a previously conducted population-based case-control study were recruited for a cross-sectional survey. Validated measures of psychosocial quality of life related to melanoma diagnosis were assessed. Outcomes were compared by sex using linear regression models adjusting for age, education, income, and marital status.

Results

The survey response rate was 62% (433 females, 291 males; 86% stage I disease). Females were more likely to report changes in their appearance (p = 0.006) and being more fearful of recurrence (p = 0.001) or a second melanoma (p = 0.001) than males but were also more likely to report that melanoma had a positive impact on their lives (p < 0.0001). Males were more likely to agree with statements that emphasized that life’s duration is limited (p < 0.0001).

Conclusion

Long-term melanoma survivors reported generally favorable measures of psychosocial quality of life related to their diagnosis. Females and males reported unique quality of life concerns and may require varied methods of support following a melanoma diagnosis.

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Availability of data and material

The data for this study may be accessible upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

Code availability

The SAS 9.4 (Cary, NC) code for the analyses described here may be available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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Funding

This work was supported by a grant from the Masonic Cancer Center of the University of Minnesota’s internal grants program (Lazovich), National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, grant P30 CA77598 (PI: Yee) utilizing the Biostatistics Core, a shared resource of the Masonic Cancer Center (Vogel), and National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health grant UL1TR002494 (PI: Blazar) for utilization of REDCap (Vogel). Work on this manuscript was additionally supported by the Wayne Stinchcomb Big Orange Foundation-Melanoma Research Alliance Young Investigator Award (Vogel) and National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health grant T32CA163184 (Stenzel). The funders had no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, or interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Minnesota, 420 Delaware Street SE, MMC 395, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Rachel I. Vogel, Patricia I. Jewett, Megan Olson & Ashley E. Stenzel

  2. Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Rachel I. Vogel, Nathan Rubin, Rehana L. Ahmed & DeAnn Lazovich

  3. College of Continuing Education and Professional Studies, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Broderick Yoerg

  4. Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology and Oncology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Patricia I. Jewett

  5. Program in Health Disparities Research, Department of Family Medicine & Community Health, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Ashley E. Stenzel

  6. Department of Dermatology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    Rehana L. Ahmed

  7. Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA

    DeAnn Lazovich

Authors
  1. Rachel I. Vogel
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  5. Megan Olson
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  8. DeAnn Lazovich
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Contributions

Conception and design: R.I.V., D.L.; data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation: R.I.V., B.Y., N.R., P.I.J., R.A., D.L.; writing/editing of manuscript: R.I.V., B.Y., P.I.J., N.R., M.O., A.E.S., R.A., D.L.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rachel I. Vogel.

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Ethics approval

This study was approved by the University of Minnesota Institutional Review Board and the Minnesota Cancer Surveillance System and certify that the study was performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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No individual data are presented.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Vogel, R.I., Yoerg, B., Jewett, P.I. et al. Cross-sectional study of sex differences in psychosocial quality of life of long-term melanoma survivors. Support Care Cancer 29, 5663–5671 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06046-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06046-7

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