Return to Work in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Diseases and accidents bring about the disorder at someone's job insofar as one is not able to return to her/his previous work. These cases are related to the amount of occurred accidents, type of disease, and one's job.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the factors that affect return to work (RTW) in cancer survivors using a systematic review and meta-analysis design.

This is a systematic review and meta-analysis study. We searched the PubMed, Scopus, SID, Google, Elsevier, Google Scholar and Web of Science databases using following keywords: Return to work, cancer patients, employment status, cancer survivors from 2002 to 2017. The rate of return to work in cancer patients based on age group and risk factors was calculated using subgroup analysis. Data were analyzed using STATA software (version 11.1).

The total sample size was 4675 people with a mean of 668 in each study. The frequency of studies in the world consists mainly of five studies (71.5%) from Europe continent (the Netherlands and Denmark) and two studies (28.5%) from Asia continent (Iran and Japan). The overall rate of RTW estimated at 72% (68%-77%). The percentage of RTW in Asia and Europe was 57% (50%-65%) and 52% (43%-60%), respectively. Surgery had the highest percentage of treatment options in patients with cancer with 46% (25%-68%), followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy with 37% (29%-46%) and 36% (23%-49%), respectively. Breast cancer and gastrointestinal cancer were the most and less common type of cancers with 36% (19%-54%) and 16% (7%-26%), respectively.

The overall rate of RTW estimated at 57%. Nonetheless, the faster diagnosis and regular screening could improve the survival rate of cancer patients and the increase of RTW.