Most cancer patients don’t quit their jobs

updated 4:41 p.m. ET Jan. 4, 2006

NEW YORK - Margot Morrell viewed her 2004 ovarian cancer diagnosis as a challenge.

“From the minute I was diagnosed, my focus was completely on how do I get over this as fast as possible so I can get back to work,” said Morrell, an author and speaker.

More than one-third of the women in America and almost half the men will be diagnosed with cancer sometime in their lives, and for many, the diagnosis will come while they’re working — literally. Many patients hear the diagnosis for the first time when their doctor phones at work. Most continue working while they’re treated.

According to a study of 1,433 cancer patients ages 25 to 62 published in the journal “Cancer,” about 59 percent of men and 61 percent of women continued working during cancer treatment. Of those who stopped working, most returned to work the first year after treatment.

“Most people want to keep working,” said Barbara Hoffman, a founding board member of the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship. “Most people, if they are really not able to work will say, ‘I can’t come in this week, or this month, or these four months,’ but they really want to reintegrate to work when they are able to.”

One reason: Health insurance. Cathy J. Bradley, of the Massey Cancer Center at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond is studying cancer treatment and work. She found that 38 percent of prostate cancer patients said they kept working to maintain their health insurance. Married women with breast cancer whose health insurance is through their husband’s employer are more likely to take time off than married women with breast cancer who are responsible for their own health insurance coverage.

Still, even the rich and famous seem eager to return to work.

Donna Svennevik / ABC via Getty Images file ABC “World News Tonight” anchor Peter Jennings hoped to return to work after being diagnosed with lung cancer. (Jennings died in August.)

ABC “World News Tonight” anchor Peter Jennings announced last April that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and spoke hopefully about returning to work. (Jennings died in August.)

Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs took only two months off after surgery for pancreatic cancer in 2004. Maria Friedman, the star of a Broadway musical, “The Woman in White,” performed on opening night, 10 days after a lumpectomy for breast cancer. Her radiologist waited in the wings and the front-page New York Times headline read: “Musical really does go on as star is treated for cancer.”

But the road is rocky for some cancer patients, who find treatment or complications make them sicker than they imagined.

Karen Pollitz was Deputy Assistant Secretary for health legislation at the Health and Human Services department during the Clinton administration in 1996 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Donna Shalala, then secretary of health and human services, called after the diagnosis and said: “You do what you need to do. You’ll be OK.”

Chemotherapy made Pollitz sick several days each cycle and a case of strep throat was so debilitating, she could barely turn her head. She ended up missing about two months of work.

“It was a nightmare,” she said. “I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy.”

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