Table 1.
Clinical and Sociodemographic Characteristics of Thyroid Cancer Survivors Stratified by Time Since Diagnosis and the Normative Population [n (%)]
| Short-term survivors, <5 years (n=81) | Long-term survivors, 5–10 years (n=86) | Long-term survivors, 10–15 years (n=75) | Long-term survivors, >15 years (n=64) | Normative population (n=530) | pa | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean age at time of survey (±SD) | 55.6±16.0 | 54.5±14.8 | 56.8±13.1 | 59.6±13.4 | 55.8±14.6 | 0.26 |
| Mean years since initial diagnosis (±SD) | 3.3±0.9 | 7.3±1.5 | 12.1±1.5 | 17.8±1.8 | n.a. | <0.001 |
| Sex | 0.95 | |||||
| Male | 20 (25) | 24 (28) | 17 (23) | 15 (23) | 132 (25) | |
| Female | 61 (75) | 62 (72) | 58 (77) | 49 (77) | 397 (75) | |
| Type of thyroid cancer | 0.15 | |||||
| Papillary | 63 (80) | 58 (67) | 55 (73) | 42 (66) | n.a. | |
| Follicular (including Hürthle cell) | 13 (17) | 23 (27) | 20 (27) | 17 (27) | ||
| Medullary | 3 (4) | 5 (6) | — | 5 (8) | ||
| Primary treatment | 0.24 | |||||
| Surgery alone | 19 (24) | 26 (30) | 22 (29) | 16 (25) | n.a. | |
| Surgery+131I ablation | 59 (73) | 59 (69) | 51 (68) | 43 (67) | ||
| Surgery+131I therapy | 3 (4) | — | 1 (1) | 5 (8) | ||
| Other (chemotherapy/131I therapy or no oncological treatment) | — | 1 (1) | 1 (1) | — | ||
| Stage | <0.001 | |||||
| 1 | 34 (43) | 54 (64) | 41 (57) | 43 (68) | n.a. | |
| 2 | 11 (14) | 14 (17) | 18 (25) | 16 (25) | ||
| 3 | 22 (28) | 12 (14) | 11 (15) | 3 (5) | ||
| 4 | 12 (15) | 5 (6) | 2 (3) | 1 (2) | ||
| Comorbidity at time of study | 0.01 | |||||
| None | 19 (24) | 29 (34) | 17 (23) | 16 (25) | 215 (41) | |
| 1 | 26 (32) | 24 (28) | 24 (32) | 18 (28) | 128 (24) | |
| ≥2 | 36 (44) | 33 (38) | 34 (45) | 30 (47) | 188 (35) | |
| Partner | 0.28 | |||||
| Yes | 58 (72) | 69 (80) | 62 (83) | 49 (77) | 389 (73) | |
| No | 23 (28) | 17 (20) | 13 (17) | 15 (23) | 142 (27) | |
| Educational levelb | <0.001 | |||||
| Low | 5 (6) | 11 (13) | 9 (12) | 8 (13) | 20 (4) | |
| Medium | 50 (62) | 49 (58) | 49 (65) | 44 (69) | 315 (60) | |
| High | 26 (32) | 25 (29) | 17 (23) | 12 (19) | 194 (37) | |
| Employment status | 0.29 | |||||
| Yes | 40 (50) | 48 (57) | 40 (54) | 26 (42) | 250 (47) | |
| No | 40 (50) | 36 (43) | 34 (46) | 36 (58) | 281 (53) |
Some variables exceed 100% because of rounding off; some variables do not add up to 100% because of missing data.
a
p-Value for comparison of all available groups; Bold=p<0.05.
b
Low (no or primary school); medium (lower general secondary education or vocational training); high (preuniversity education, high vocational training, university.
n.a., these items were not assessed in the normative population; SD, standard deviation.