PhD conferral Maarten van Heinsbergen

Keywords: colorectal cancer, functional bowel complaints, quality of life

"The challenges of colorectal cancer survivors-
Complaints after colorectal surgery: An underestimated problem"

Within this thesis, we found that functional bowel complaints described as LARS (low anterior resection syndrome) after low anterior resection, is also rather prevalent in patients who underwent treatment for cancer above the rectum, and even in a healthy reference population. Despite the fact that these bothersome complaints seriously affect a patients’ quality of life, there is a lack of knowledge considering these complaints among healthcare providers. Colorectal cancer patients benefit from adequate counselling, early diagnosing and tailored treatment when they (may) develop LARS. Besides functional abdominal complaints, patients after treatment for colorectal cancer can develop other bothersome long-term side effects such as chronic fatigue, depression and sexual dysfunction. Cooperation between hospital care providers and primary care providers such as GPs in the postoperative period may reduce postoperative mortality and improve patients’ overall health status. Apart from an intensive postoperative care model, pre-operative strategies to improve a patients’ future restorative ability show promising results. Selecting which patients may benefit from these (p) rehabilitation programs based on patient-related characteristics and measurements remains a future challenge.

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