Reduction of cancer-specific thought intrusions and anxiety symptoms with a stress management intervention among women undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Objective: After surgery for breast cancer, many women experience anxiety relating to the cancer that can adversely affect quality of life and emotional functioning during the year postsurgery. Symptoms such as intrusive thoughts may be ameliorated during this period with a structured, group-based cognitive behavior intervention.

Method: A 10-week group cognitive behavior stress management intervention that included anxiety reduction (relaxation training), cognitive restructuring, and coping skills training was tested among 199 women newly treated for stage 0-III breast cancer.

Quality of life among long-term survivors of breast cancer: Different types of antecedents predict different classes of outcomes.

Quality of life (QOL) has many aspects, both in the short-term and in the long-term. Different aspects of QOL may have different types of precursors: demographic, medical, and psychosocial. We examined this possibility in a group of long-term breast cancer survivors.

Optimistic personality and psychosocial well-being during treatment predict psychosocial well-being among long-term survivors of breast cancer.

In considering well-being among survivors of life-threatening illnesses such as breast cancer, 2 important questions are whether there is continuity between initial adjustment and longer term adjustment and what role personality plays in long-term adjustment. In this research, a sample of 163 early stage breast cancer patients whose psychosocial adjustment was first assessed during the year after surgery completed the same measures 5-13 years after surgery. Initial reports of well-being were relatively strong predictors of follow-up well-being on the same measures.

Assessing quality of life in adult cancer survivors (QLACS).

This article describes development of a quality of life measure designed to assess issues relevant to long-term cancer survivors. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 58 long-term cancer survivors to identify domains most relevant to long-term survivors (> or = 5 years post-diagnosis). Self-report items were developed from these interviews and administered to a second sample of 242 long-term survivors.

A qualitative exploration of the cancer experience among long-term survivors: comparisons by cancer type, ethnicity, gender, and age.

Background: To elucidate meanings ascribed to the cancer experience by long-term survivors.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 58 cancer survivors (>15 years post-diagnosis). Respondents described how cancer affected their quality of life (QOL) generally and in 17 domains.