Female Cancer Patients At Higher Risk For Divorce Or Separation.(female brain tumor patients)

2001 JUN 7 - (NewsRx Network) -- Married female patients with brain tumors are dramatically more likely to experience a separation or divorce during the course of their illness than male patients, collaborating researchers from several institutions conclude.

Researchers focused initially on patients with brain tumors (malignant gliomas), and then looked at patients with nervous system disease but without cancer (patients with multiple sclerosis), and patients with cancer but without nervous system disease (patients with breast cancer, lung cancer, lymphoma, and other types of cancer) to see whether the same pattern of marital disruption was present.

According to their findings, reported May 14, 2001, at the 37th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, in 214 patients with brain tumors, women were eight times more likely to undergo separation or divorce. In 107 patients with multiple sclerosis, women were nearly seven times more likely to suffer these outcomes. Finally, in 193 patients with systemic cancer, women were nearly 12 times more likely to report such problems.

Researchers were surprised at the much higher rate of marital disruption among female patients in all three disease groups, and were particularly alarmed at the "extraordinarily high" incidence of divorce among women ...