Combined mental health, sleep, and nutrition support improves recovery, immune response, and survival after surgery for low rectal cancer

At 24 months, patients receiving an integrative psychosocial-sleep-nutrition program had a 90.3% disease-free survival rate compared to 79.2% in standard care.

• Patients in the integrative program experienced significant reductions in psychological distress, with decreases of 5.2 points on the BDI-II and 3.8 points on the BAI.
• Improved sleep quality was noted, indicated by a 2.9 point reduction on the PSQI scale.
• The prevalence of major bowel dysfunction was lower in the intervention group at 28.7% compared to 46.2% in standard care.
• Sexual function scores were higher in patients receiving the integrative support.
• Postoperative inflammatory markers, including CRP, IL-6, and TNF-α, were significantly lower in the intervention group (p < 0.001).
• Two-year overall survival rates were 93.6% for the intervention group versus 82.5% for standard care (p = 0.019).

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