A recent study found married cancer patients survive longer than those without spouses.
The medical researchers also found that married patients were usually diagnosed with cancer at earlier stages than their single counterparts, an American Society of Clinical Oncology press release reported.
The trial included people suffering from "lung, colorectal, breast, pancreatic, prostate, liver/bile duct, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, head and neck, ovarian, and esophageal cancer."
Past studies have found that companionship in decision-making along with stress and depression management also extended the lives of many cancer patients.
"Marriage probably improves outcomes among patients with cancer through increased social support," lead study author Ayal Aizer, MD, MHS, a chief resident in radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, said. "Our results suggest that patients who are not married should reach out to friends, cancer support or faith-based groups, and their doctors to obtain adequate social support."
The study included 734,889 patients who were diagnosed with cancer between the years of 2004 and 2008. The team found that the married participants were about 17 percent less likely to have metastatic disease when they were first diagnosed than the single study subjects.
Patients with non-metastatic disease were found to be 53 percent more likely to receive therapy for their condition.
According to the data, a married cancer patient was 20 percent more likely to be alive at any given time.
An overally median had not been reached in the data since fewer than 50 percent of the participants died in each section of the study.
"This finding suggests that there may be ways to improve cancer outcomes in addition to anti-cancer therapy. Improving social support for our patients may be equally important as providing effective therapy, and it is less costly to develop and implement," senior study author Paul Nguyen, MD, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center, said.
The findings could be used by doctors to help lengthen the lives of their patients.
"As doctors, we should assess what level of social support our unmarried patients have ─ who's helping them shoulder the burden of this diagnosis, who's going to take them to doctors' appointments, and make sure they're coping with the mental, emotional and physical stresses of cancer. If they don't have enough support, we need to engage the help of family, friends, social workers, mental health professionals, faith-based organization, and cancer support groups to get patients the support that they need," Dr. Aizer said.
