Abstract
BackgroundPsychiatric patients with colorectal cancer may have delayed diagnosis and be oncologically undertreated.MethodsThe Danish Colorectal Cancer Group database comprised 25,194 colorectal cancer patients (CRC), (colon cancer (CC, n = 16,641), rectal cancer (RC, n = 8553)), having an operation in 2007–2013, were alive at least 30 days after operation, of which 422 have had at least one hospital contact for a serious psychiatric disorder; ICD-10: DF20–29: primary psychotic disorders, or DF30–39: affective disorders (exposed) in a period of 3650–120 days before the operation date. Pearson chi-squared test for cancer stage was calculated. Odds Ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) for having had a palliative vs an intended curative aim of the operative treatment for CRC patients (cohort 1), and for having an oncological treatment for each cancer site CC or RC (cohort 2 and 3) in patients with and without a psychiatric history was estimated. We adjusted the OR for: age, gender, comorbidity index, cancer stage, socio-economic position group, and educational level.ResultsA higher cancer stage at the time of operation in patients with psychiatric disorders compared with patients without such a history was seen and may possibly point towards a delay in the diagnosis or in the treatment of CC in patients with psychiatric disorders. They also had decreased adjusted OR for having an oncological treatment, OR 0.55, 95% CI (0.40–0.76)), which was not explained by cancer stage. For patients with RC no difference was seen.ConclusionsAttention for CC patients with pre-existing serious psychiatric disorders is recommended.
Highlights
Psychiatric patients with colorectal cancer may have delayed diagnosis and be oncologically undertreated
We do not know if pre-existing psychiatric disorders in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients significantly change the CRC treatment offered to these patients
We aimed to investigate if pre-existing serious psychiatric disorders affect the cancer stage at the time of operation, having palliative vs an intended curative aim of the operative treatment, or having an oncological treatment in CRC patients
Summary
Psychiatric patients with colorectal cancer may have delayed diagnosis and be oncologically undertreated. Psychiatric disorders may affect the advocating or acceptance of cancer diagnostic procedures or treatment as suggested for lung cancer patients [9]. For colorectal cancer (CRC) patients in Denmark, the treatment with an operation, the neoadjuvant or the adjuvant chemotherapy is carried out according to the current national guidelines. The oncological treatment in colon cancer (CC) patients who has undergone an operation depends on the TNM-staging (tumor, node, metastasis) of the CRC and is mainly adjuvant (at pathological TNM-staging II and III), whereas stage IV treatment is considered palliative. We aimed to investigate if pre-existing serious psychiatric disorders affect the cancer stage at the time of operation, having palliative vs an intended curative aim of the operative treatment, or having an oncological treatment in CRC patients
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