Most People With Cancer Are Also Managing Other Chronic Conditions — Here's What a Major UK Study Found

Cancer rarely arrives alone. A large UK cohort study published in BMC Medicine looked at how common it is for people to have other, unrelated long-term health conditions alongside a cancer diagnosis — and how that picture changes for those who go on to live for years beyond diagnosis. The findings suggest that managing cancer is, for most patients, only part of the health story.

What the Researchers Looked At

The team used UK primary care and hospital records to study two groups: people newly diagnosed with breast, prostate, colorectal or lung cancer in 2018, and a separate group who had been living with one of these cancers for five years. Altogether, over 33,000 people with a new diagnosis and nearly 17,000 longer-term survivors were included. Across 46 different long-term conditions — excluding cancer itself — the researchers measured how many people had multimorbidity (two or more additional conditions) and, more specifically, "mental-physical multimorbidity," meaning at least one physical condition alongside at least one mental health condition.

Additional Health Conditions Are the Norm, Not the Exception

The numbers were striking. Depending on cancer type, somewhere between 60% and 86% of people already had multimorbidity at the time of their cancer diagnosis. That proportion rose further among those living with and beyond cancer, reaching 70–90%. Fewer than one in five people at diagnosis had no other long-term condition at all, and for lung cancer patients, that figure dropped below 6%. Among longer-term survivors, having no other condition was even rarer — under 2.3% for those with lung cancer.

Mental-physical multimorbidity was also common, affecting roughly a quarter to nearly 40% of people at diagnosis, and a similar or slightly higher share among survivors. This pattern highlights that cancer care often intersects with mental health care from the very start, not just as a late-stage concern.

Lung Cancer Stood Out

When the researchers compared cancer types, lung cancer was consistently linked with the highest burden of additional conditions. Compared with colorectal cancer, people with lung cancer had roughly double the odds of multimorbidity at diagnosis, after accounting for age, deprivation and ethnicity — and the gap remained wide among long-term survivors too. In contrast, women with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer tended to have lower odds of multimorbidity than those with colorectal cancer. These differences likely reflect a mix of factors, including shared risk factors like smoking, typical age at diagnosis, and underlying population health differences between groups — the study wasn't designed to pin down a single cause.

Deprivation Added an Extra Layer

One of the more consistent findings was that people living in the most socioeconomically deprived areas had higher rates of both multimorbidity and mental-physical multimorbidity, regardless of age group. This gap was present at diagnosis and persisted years into survivorship, pointing to inequalities that don't simply fade with time or improved cancer outcomes.

Why Coordinated Care Matters

The authors argue that these findings have practical implications for how cancer care is organized. If most patients are juggling other chronic conditions — diabetes, heart disease, depression, COPD, and more — alongside cancer treatment, then care that focuses narrowly on the tumor risks missing a large part of what shapes a person's day-to-day health and quality of life. The study's authors call for better coordination between primary care and cancer specialists, spanning the full journey from diagnosis through treatment and into survivorship, with particular attention to people in deprived areas and those with lung cancer.

This was an observational study based on health records, so it can show patterns and associations but can't establish exactly why certain cancers or circumstances are linked with more additional conditions. It also relied on recorded diagnoses, which may undercount conditions that go unrecorded in primary care data.

For anyone navigating a cancer diagnosis or survivorship while also managing other health conditions, this research is a reminder to keep an open conversation going with your care team about how all your conditions are being managed together. As always, specific questions about your own health and treatment are best directed to your doctor or care team.

Source: BMC Medicine, DOI: 10.1186/s12916-026-05274-0 — based on findings reported by Maxwell, Lone, Jackson and Guthrie in their retrospective cohort study.