Triggers of Uncertainty About Recurrence and Long-Term Treatment Side Effects in Older African American and Caucasian Breast Cancer Survivors

Abstract

Nurses can help cancer survivors to identify, monitor, and manage illness uncertainty and emotional distress.

Predicting physical quality of life among a multiethnic sample of breast cancer survivors

“…In addition, age was negatively related to the level of income for First, we found that psychological well-being was directly associated with PQOL across all ethnic groups. Our finding is consistent with other studies [34,[80][81][82][83]. For some survivors, psychological distress including depression, anxiety, or fear can manifest into chronic and persistent stressors [84,85]; such that experiencing psychological distress may deteriorate physical functioning and overall HRQOL.…”

Breast cancer survivors’ supportive care needs 2–10 years after diagnosis

“…The most prevalent unmet need, manage concerns about the cancer coming back was endorsed by one third of survivors. Fear of recurrence has been frequently identified in both qualitative and quantitative studies [17,18,44,58] and while this fear was found to diminish over the first 12 months [34], our findings indicate that significant numbers of survivors report persistent fears of recurrence up to 10 years post diagnosis.…”

Psychological Adjustment in Breast Cancer Survivors

“…Fear of breast cancer recurrence can be amplifi ed or reactivated by several triggers, such as follow-up medical visits, the experience of physical symptoms such as new or persistent pain or fatigue, and cancer diagnosis or death of a public fi gure, friend, or family member (Gil et al 2004 ). Heightened fear of recurrence is reported by adult survivors of younger age, lower educational level, fewer signifi cant others, and Hispanic or non-Hispanic white race/ethnicity ( Crist and Grunfeld 2013 ;Phillips et al 2013 ).…”