Primary care providers (PCPs) have been given the responsibility of managing the follow-up care of low-risk cancer survivors after they are discharged from the oncology center. Survivorship Care Plans (SCPs) were developed to facilitate this transition, but research indicates inconsistencies in how they are implemented. A detailed examination of enablers and barriers that influence their use by PCPs is needed to understand how to improve SCPs and ultimately facilitate cancer survivors' transition to primary care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Clinical fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) was recently defined by a group of experts during a Delphi study. Five criteria were agreed upon, namely: (a) high levels of preoccupation, (b) high levels of worry, (c) that are persistent, (d) hypervigilance and hypersensitivity to physical sensations that e) may result in functional impairment. No existing instruments comprehensively capture all these criteria for clinical FCR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Most fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) interventions have small effects, and few target FCR. This randomized controlled trial (RCT) with breast and gynecological cancer survivors evaluated the efficacy of a cognitive-existential fear of recurrence therapy (FORT) compared to an attention placebo control group (living well with cancer [LWWC]) on FCR.
Method: One hundred and sixty-four women with clinical levels of FCR and cancer distress were randomly assigned to 6-weekly, 120 min FORT (n = 80) or LWWC (n = 84) group sessions.
Survivorship care plans aim to facilitate a smooth transition from tertiary to primary care settings after primary cancer treatment is completed. This study sought to identify the sociodemographic factors associated with receiving a survivorship care plan and examine the relationship between receiving a plan and confidence in follow-up care delivered by primary care providers. A cross-sectional analysis of the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer's Experiences of Cancer Patients in Transition Study was conducted (n = 9970).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Wellness Beyond Cancer Program is part of a tertiary care hospital in Ontario, Canada. It provides cancer survivors with information and resources needed to self-manage their follow-up care (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Patients with chronic diseases commonly report fears of illness or symptoms recurring or worsening. These fears have been addressed from an illness-specific perspective (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Without an agreed-upon set of characteristics that differentiate clinical from nonclinical levels of fear of cancer recurrence (FCR), it is difficult to ensure that FCR severity is appropriately measured, and that those in need of intervention are identified. The objective of this study was to establish expert consensus on the defining features of clinical FCR.
Method: A three-round Delphi was used to reach consensus on the defining features of clinical FCR.
Purpose: Health anxiety (HA) is associated with reduced quality of life among individuals with chronic illnesses. However, little is known about effective interventions for reducing HA in this context. This study aimed to comprehensively review the literature on interventions for the treatment of HA in chronic illness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Implementing the treatment arm of a clinical trial often requires changes to healthcare practices. Barriers to such changes may undermine the delivery of the treatment making it more likely that the trial will demonstrate no treatment effect. The 'Major outcomes with personalized dialysate temperature' (MyTEMP) is a cluster-randomised trial to be conducted in 84 haemodialysis centres across Ontario, Canada to investigate whether there is a difference in major outcomes with an individualized dialysis temperature (IDT) of 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Research to date on fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) shows that moderate to high FCR affects 22-87 % of cancer survivors and is associated with higher psychological morbidity (Simard et al J Cancer Surviv 7:300-322, 2013). Despite growing research interest in FCR, the lack of consensus on its definition and characteristics when it reaches a clinical level has impeded knowledge transfer into patient services.
Methods: In order to address these gaps, expert researchers, policy makers, trainees, and patient advocates attended a 2-day colloquium at the University of Ottawa in August 2015.
Purpose: Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is a common experience for cancer survivors. However, it remains unclear what characteristics differentiate non-clinical from clinical levels of FCR. The goal of this study was to investigate the potential hallmarks of clinical FCR.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is defined as "the fear or worry that the cancer will return or progress in the same area or another part of the body." FCR is associated with impaired functioning and lower quality of life in cancer patients. A cognitive-existential (CE) manualized group intervention for women with FCR showed a moderate effect size in reducing FCR, cancer-specific distress, and maladaptive coping.
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