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REBOUND “Trained to live again”: The practice of great Olympic coaches improves and enhances the quality of life of cancer patients in remission after hematopoietic stem cell allogeneic transplantation

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 55, pages 997–999 (2020)Cite this article

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Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) has established that patients with acute leukemia may be cured, leading to substantial hope [1,2,3]. However, this therapy is associated with important complications: rejection, graft versus host disease (GVHD), and infections are life-threatening situations and can require multiple hospital readmissions. Disease relapse represents a major challenge. Despite all these drawbacks, more and more patients become long-term survivors without disease, but this deeply wished cure, surprisingly and at least in the initial period, does not always represent the expected heaven. This is highly related to the above-mentioned complications that, when not lethal, may have a significant impact on quality of life.

Moreover, the quality of everyday life can be highly impacted with strained conditions. This situation has its share of unfulfilled needs and new, existential anxieties: the fear of relapse rendering the future uncertain, concerns about managing health needs with less medical support and guidance, often experienced as the disappearance of a “safety net” [4]. In addition, survivors need to incorporate this cancer experience into their life story and the image they convey to others. For example, allowing oneself to talk about cancer in a professional or personal context is not always an obvious issue. The sequelae caused by medical treatments may also cause some patients to feel unfit to carry out the roles (family or professional) they had previously occupied, even though their entourage may regard them as “cured” and thus able to carry them out. Controversially, some patients must reassert themselves against overprotective relatives as a result of the shared impact of disease. Unsurprisingly, patients may develop anxiety and depressive disorders, which are prevalent in allografted patients during this recovery phase [5,6,7]. These disorders, while not necessarily pathological [8], may cause a long-term deterioration in the psychological well-being as well as the quality of life of survivors. They may also be responsible for slowing down the resilience process necessary to ensure optimal global recovery [9,10,11]. The scientific literature mentions a link between the existence of depressive symptoms and decreased survival in patients with HSCT, showing that negative emotions have a broader impact than just quality of life, which may not allow them to live life to the fullest [3, 12]. As a matter of fact, remission period is not always totally received as the good news it should be as it may take a long time, sometimes years, to adapt to life after cancer [13]. Thus, what strategy could one devise, against this backdrop, to help survivors gain autonomy, self-confidence, and reassure them of their ability to cope and enable them to forge their own goals? In other words, how to help them to shift from a surviving to an alive status?

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Acknowledgements

Authors thank CD Buckner, MD and L Nakatsu, RPH, Seattle, USA for their critical review of the manuscript. This program was partially supported by fundings from “Conseil département des Bouches du Rhone “ and “ Fondation du Crédit Agricole Alpes-Provence”.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Didier Blaise, Sarah Calvin

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology, Centre de Recherche en Cancerologie de Marseille, INSERM (UMR 1068), CNRS (UMR 7258), Aix-Marseille University and Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    Didier Blaise

  2. Management Sport Cancer Laboratory EA4670, Aix-Marseille University and Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    Sarah Calvin, Charlène Villaron & Pierre Dantin

  3. Centre de Recherche en Cancerologie de Marseille, INSERM (UMR 1068), CNRS (UMR 7258) and Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    Sarah Cuvelier

  4. Department for Clinical Psychology, Management Sport Cancer Laboratory EA4670, Aix-Marseille University and Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    Patrick Ben Soussan

  5. Department of Medical Oncology, Management Sport Cancer Laboratory EA4670, Aix-Marseille University and Institut Paoli-Calmettes, Marseille, France

    Patrice Viens

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  1. Didier Blaise
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Correspondence to Sarah Calvin.

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Blaise, D., Calvin, S., Cuvelier, S. et al. REBOUND “Trained to live again”: The practice of great Olympic coaches improves and enhances the quality of life of cancer patients in remission after hematopoietic stem cell allogeneic transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 55, 997–999 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41409-020-0845-1

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