1. Quality of life in elderly long-term cancer survivors P. Heras, T. Andrianopoulos, I. Tsiverdis, I. Georgopoulos, A. Hatzopoulos Clinic of Internal Medicine, General Hospital of Nafplio, Greece

2. Introduction: In this last decade great effort has been made to describe quality of life and functioning of people surviving cancer. However, scarce data are still available on elderly cancer survivors. Since ageing itself modifies persons’ quality of life and functioning, investigation tailored to older survivors is relevant both to clinical care and research.

3. Aim: In this study the quality of life of elderly patients, who had been free from cancer and its treatments for at 5 years, has been analyzed.

4. Methods: Seventy-eight elderly( age range: 65- 80 years) long term cancer survivors ( survival length range 5-31 years) compiled the Short Form 12 Health Survey Questionnaire, the State- Trait Anxiety Inventory, and the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale.

5. Results: 28.8% and 19.7% of the sample showed respectively a moderate and severe reduction in physical health status, whereas 22.7% and 9.1% displayed a moderate or severe reduction in mental health status. In addition, 11.9% and 17.9% of the sample were possible and probably cases of anxiety, whereas 13%, 15.6% and 7.8% displayed, respectively, mild, moderate and severe depression. Physical health status was associated with marital status ( p<0.001) and state anxiety was associated with gender ( p<0.05). Conversely, no associations between the four tested variables and education, cancer type, other health issues, survival length were found.

6. Conclusions: Despite its limitations, this study supports the multi-discipninary approach to cancer survivorship in old age too and encourages further research, aimed to extend the study to other relevant dimensions (e.g. pain, fatigue, cognitive functioning, fear of relapse).