[Changes in occupational status following cancer. An empirical study on occupational rehabilitation]

The importance of vocational integration has increased during the last years, whereas an analysis of the literature shows, that research in this field has been neglected especially in german speaking countries. This study investigates the situation and the problems of vocational integration after cancer. 380 former patients with different diagnoses treated in a university medical center have been asked by a self developed questionnaire for their experiences in treatment and medical rehabilitation, their actual impairment in physical and vocational functioning, their estimation of rehabilitation success, their actual employment problems and the changes of job conditions due to cancer. As the results show, more than one third of the sample returned to work often reducing working time or changing their job. Especially older patients with worse prognoses have been retired early. Special programs of vocational rehabilitation are not used by patients we examined, whereas programs of medical rehabilitation are used showing great differences between diagnostic groups. The return to work is influenced by age, tumor localisation, prognosis and the former status in job. The results are discussed with regard to the problems of psychosocial rehabilitation of cancer patients.