Work with cancer or stop working after diagnosis? Variables affecting the decision

Studies about work and cancer predominantly considered the return to work of cancer survivors. However, some studies highlighted that many patients work with cancer even immediately after the diagnosis. Little is known about the frequency, causes, and consequences of this behavior.

This study aimed to estimate how many cancer patients continue working in the month after the diagnosis in an Italian context and to determine which factors affect the decision to stop working in the same period.

One hundred seventy-six patients with breast, gastrointestinal, prostate, or female reproductive system cancer completed a survey with demographic, occupational, and psychosocial information. Clinical information was collected from medical records. We measured how many workers continued working in the month after cancer diagnosis without substantial interruptions and selected the best logistic regression model of this behavior's predictors.

Sixty-eight percent of the patients continued working in the month after the diagnosis. Patients were more likely to stop working with a higher level of perceived work-health incompatibility (OR = 2.64; 95%CI: 1.48-4.69), an open-ended contract (OR = 3.20; CI: 1.13-9.09), and a complex treatment (surgery+chemo-/radio-therapy, OR = 4.25; CI: 1.55-11.65) and less likely with breast cancer (OR = 0.20; CI: 0.07-0.56), and more children (OR = 0.59; CI: 0.37-0.96).

To continue working with cancer is a common practice among the newly diagnosed. The decision to suspend work activity relates to evaluating how much work activities hamper one's health care needs and the practical difficulties expected in handling cancer care and work.