Behavioral Health Disorders Linked to Worse Outcomes After Cancer Surgery

Patients with BHD are less likely to undergo resection and have increased odds of a complication

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, March 1, 2024 (HealthDay News) — For patients with cancer, behavioral health disorders (BHD) are associated with worse outcomes, including long-term postoperative outcomes, according to a study published online Feb. 29 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

Erryk S. Katayama, from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, and colleagues examined the prevalence of BHD among cancer patients and examined the association of BHD with surgical outcomes among patients diagnosed with lung, esophageal, gastric, liver, pancreatic, and colorectal cancer between 2018 and 2021. BHD was defined as substance abuse, eating disorder, or sleep disorder.

Overall, 6.7 percent of the 694,836 cancer patients had at least one BHD. The researchers found that patients with versus without BHD were significantly less likely to undergo resection (20.3 versus 23.4 percent). Regardless of social vulnerability or hospital volume status, among surgical patients, those with BHD had increased odds of a complication (odds ratio, 1.32), prolonged length of stay (odds ratio, 1.36), and 90-day readmission (odds ratio, 1.57), resulting in reduced odds of achieving a postoperative textbook outcome. Significantly higher in-hospital expenditures were also seen for surgical patients with BHD ($17,432 versus $16,159, respectively). Worse long-term postoperative survival was seen for patients with BHD (37.1 versus 46.6 months), even after controlling for other clinical factors (hazard ratio, 1.26).

“Initiatives to screen and target BHD are needed to improve outcomes of cancer patients undergoing surgery,” the authors write.