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Patients’ and oncologists’ perspectives on a novel Clinician-led Fear of Cancer Recurrence (CIFeR) Intervention

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Abstract

Purpose

Despite strong demand from breast cancer survivors, there is a dearth of flexibly delivered, accessible psychological interventions addressing fear of cancer recurrence (FCR). This study aimed to explore patients’ and clinicians’ perspectives concerning the experience, utility and barriers to a novel clinician-led FCR intervention (CIFeR).

Methods

Twenty female participants (mean age, 59.8, SD = 11.43), diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer (mean years since diagnosis = 2.8, SD = 1.37 years) participated in telephone interviews, and their five oncologists completed a semi-structured electronic survey. Thematic qualitative analyses were performed on interview transcripts and survey responses.

Results

Findings indicated both patients and clinicians were positive about CIFeR with perceived cognitive, behavioural and emotional benefits of CIFeR most pronounced for patients with clinically significant FCR. All patients, however, found that receiving CIFeR (especially the tailored prognostic information) from their oncologists with whom they had a long-standing relationship added a much-needed human element to addressing FCR. Similarly, clinicians valued CIFeR as a clear and consistent way to address unmet needs around FCR, with some barriers around time, language and cultural issues noted.

Conclusion

Overall, all participants perceived CIFeR as strongly beneficial in reducing FCR and related worries, thus warranting further evaluation of its utility in clinical practice.

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Data availability

Data is available in de-identified form as an Excel spreadsheet on OSF under the link: https://osf.io/s9djt/files/.

Code availability

N/A.

Notes

  1. One clinician participant did not specify their exact age or years in oncology, replying they were in their “late 40 s” and spent “15 to 20 years” in the profession. In order to proceed with analyses, the missing data were substituted with the mean values for age (47 years, between 45 and 50 years) and years of experience (17 years, between 15 and 20 years) within the boundaries specified by the participant, per Salkind [16]. No other missing data was recorded.

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Acknowledgements

The research team would like to thank all participating patients, oncologists and research staff who contributed their time and insights.

Funding

The Avant Foundation and Sydney Breast Cancer Foundation funded this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psycho-Oncology Co-Operative Group (PoCoG), University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Anastasia Serafimovska, Jane Beith & Phyllis Butow

  2. ProCan, The Children’s Medical Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Westmead, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Jia Liu

  3. Faculty of Medicine, University of Western Sydney, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia

    Jia Liu

  4. Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Jane Beith

  5. University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Jane Beith

Authors
  1. Anastasia Serafimovska
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  2. Jia Liu
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  3. Jane Beith
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  4. Phyllis Butow
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Contributions

Jia Liu, Phyllis Butow and Jane Beith conceived and developed the study design. Material preparation, data collection and analyses were completed by Anastasia Serafimovska, Jia Liu and Jane Beith. Anastasia Serafimovska conducted all interviews, with Phyllis Butow also analysing qualitative findings. All authors commented on the first draft of the manuscript by Anastasia Serafimovska, and all authors contributed to and approved the manuscript in preparation for publication.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jia Liu.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

All phases of this study were conducted in line with the principles of the 1964 Helsinki Declaration. Ethical approval was gained on the 27th of September 2019 from Sydney Local Health District Human Research Ethics Committee (CRGH Zone) (Reference: HREC/18/CRGH/237) and University of Sydney Human Ethics committee prior to study commencement. All study phases (i.e. data collection, analysis and presentation) were conducted in adherence with these ethical standards around data protection, confidentiality and privacy.

Consent to participate and consent for publication

All participants provided fully informed consent to participate in this study and for their data to be published in aggregate (de-identified) format.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

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This study was prospectively registered on the 2nd of October 2018 in the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ACTRN12618001615279).

Supplementary Information

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Supplementary file1 (PDF 426 KB)

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Serafimovska, A., Liu, J., Beith, J. et al. Patients’ and oncologists’ perspectives on a novel Clinician-led Fear of Cancer Recurrence (CIFeR) Intervention . Support Care Cancer 29, 7637–7646 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06336-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06336-0

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