Publications by authors named "Pamela Simon"

Objective: Many young adult female cancer survivors need to use reproductive medicine, surrogacy, or adoption to have a child. This study pilot tested Roadmap to Parenthood, a web-based, self-guided decision aid and planning tool for family building after cancer (disease agnostic).

Methods: A single-arm pilot study tested feasibility, acceptability, and obtained effect size estimates of the Roadmap tool.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Stanford Cancer Survivorship Program is a key initiative of Stanford Cancer Institute. The program's mission is to improve the experience and outcomes of patients and family caregivers throughout all phases of the cancer trajectory by advancing survivorship research, clinical care, and education. The four pillars of the program include clinical care delivery with a focus on primary care-survivorship collaboration and expanding specialty services, education and training of healthcare professionals, transdisciplinary patient-oriented research, and community engagement.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Bodily threat monitoring is a core clinical feature of Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) and is targeted in psycho-oncology treatments, yet no comprehensive self-report measure exists. The aim of this study was the theory-informed development and initial validation of the Bodily Threat Monitoring Scale (BTMS).

Methods: Adult survivors of breast and gynaecological cancers (Study 1: N = 306, age = 37-81 years) and childhood cancer survivors (Study 2: N = 126, age = 10-25 years) completed the BTMS, designed to assess how individuals monitor for and interpret uncertain symptoms as indicating that something is wrong with their body.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Childhood cancer survivors are recommended to have lifelong survivorship care, yet many become disengaged during pediatric to adult care transitions. We implemented a pilot clinic for adult survivors of pediatric or adolescent and young adult (AYA) leukemia transitioning to adult-focused survivorship care. The clinic featured AYA-specific care, bidirectional communication with primary care, and a quality improvement (QI) cycle.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Pain is a common consequence of childhood cancer. While most research has examined biomedical predictors of post-cancer pain, biopsychosocial conceptualisations such as the cancer threat interpretation (CTI) model hold promise for guiding comprehensive pain management strategies. Guided by the CTI model, this cross-sectional study evaluated correlates of post-cancer pain in childhood cancer survivors including threat-related risk factors (bodily threat monitoring, fear of cancer recurrence, help-seeking) and mindsets about the body.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Surf lifesavers and lifeguards have provided essential education, preventative, and rescue services to the Australian community for over 110 years. In this first responder role, surf lifesavers and lifeguards are inadvertently exposed to high risk and trauma related experiences, which may negatively impact mental well-being. To date however, there has been limited research into the mental health of surf lifesavers and lifeguards, and no studies at all on the mental health of adolescent surf lifesavers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives/purpose: Childhood cancer survival brings continued mental and physical health challenges both for the child and for the family. In this study, we investigated how parents viewed their roles in their child's health and symptom monitoring during the survivorship period.

Methods: Twenty-one parents of childhood cancer survivors (n = 18 mothers; parent mage = 49.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Owing to gonadotoxic cancer treatments, young adult female survivors often report uncertainty about their fertility, reproductive potential, and family-building options after treatment. Roadmap to Parenthood is a web-based decision aid and planning tool for family building after cancer.

Objective: As part of a patient-centered development process, this study evaluated the usability of the decision aid website to inform design modifications and improve user experience.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This study was designed to assess the most salient health care needs of adolescents and young adults (AYAs) who undergo cancer treatment. Understanding their age-related needs helps providers offer appropriate support when support is vital: as they accept diagnosis and undergo treatment. A mixed methods design was used to obtain quantitative and qualitative data on the overall needs of AYA cancer patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Scan-related anxiety ("scanxiety") refers to the fear, stress, and anxiety in anticipation of tests and scans in follow-up cancer care. This study assessed the feasibility of Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) for real-world, real-time capture of scanxiety using patients' personal smartphone.

Methods: Adolescent and Young Adult survivors of childhood cancer were prompted to complete EMA surveys on a smartphone app three times per day for 11 days (33 surveys total) around their routine surveillance scans.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

First responders often face traumatic and emotionally-taxing incidents in their role. Understanding their mental health and coping capacity is important for wellbeing and continued service delivery. Surf lifesavers and lifeguards are an under researched yet a vital part of the first responder workforce.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Somatic symptoms capture attention, demand interpretation, and promote health behaviors. Symptom appraisal is particularly impactful within uncertain health contexts such as cancer survivorship. Yet, little is known about how individuals make sense of somatic symptoms within uncertain health contexts, nor how this process guides health behaviors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Pediatric cancer survivors suffer indirect long-term effects of their disease; however, there is a paucity of data regarding the effect of pediatric cancer survivorship on sexual function.

Aim: To assess the prevalence and risk factors associated with sexual dysfunction among pediatric cancer survivors.

Methods: Pediatric cancer survivors were recruited to complete an online survey using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) or the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5), both validated questionnaires to assess female sexual dysfunction (FSD) and erectile dysfunction (ED).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Many young adult female (YA-F) cancer survivors who received gonadotoxic therapy will experience fertility problems. After cancer, having a child will often require assisted reproductive technology (ART), surrogacy or adoption. However, there are significant informational, psychosocial, financial and logistical barriers to pursuing these options.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Social reintegration is an important part of young adult cancer patients' transition to survivorship care. As part of a mixed methods study exploring the social functioning of young adult cancer patients during this transition process, participants ( = 13) completed four selected measures from the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) social and mental health domains within ∼6 months of completion of active treatment and 3 months later. The majority of participants ( = 10) had T-scores within normal limits on all measures.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: This study was designed to identify and explore the social support needs and preferences of young adult cancer patients during the transition process from active treatment to survivorship care.

Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with study participants (n = 13, ages 17-25 at the time of cancer diagnosis) within ∼6 months of completion of active treatment and again 3 months later. Participants completed a sociodemographic questionnaire at the first study visit.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Purpose: Adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with cancer face significant challenges with regard to fatigue, reduced physical activity, and social isolation, which may negatively impact quality of life. This study investigated whether the use of digital wearable technology (Fitbits, along with synced iPads) can affect health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in AYA aged patients with cancer.

Materials And Methods: This was a prospective cohort study that offered Fitbits and iPads to all AYA patients aged 15 to 29 at an academic medical center at the time of cancer diagnosis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: Given the high prevalence of chronic disease, it is of concern that access to and sustained engagement with primary healthcare services by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians is often far lower than would be expected. This study sought to explore ways in which relationships can support sustained engagement with healthcare services.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 126 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants with and without chronic disease and 97 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous healthcare providers, healthcare service managers or administrative staff.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The Van Nes rotationplasty is a useful limb-preserving procedure for skeletally immature patients with distal femoral or proximal tibial malignancy. The vascular supply to the lower limb either must be maintained and rotated or transected and reanastomosed. We asked whether there would be any difference in the ankle brachial index or complication rate for the two methods of vascular management.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF