Intensive Longitudinal Study of Fear of Recurrence in Cancer Patients and Spouses

描述（由申请人提供）：乳腺癌是美国以及世界上发达地区和发展中地区女性最常见的癌症。有超过1000万的美国人有个人癌症病史，因此被认为是癌症幸存者。在幸存者中，对癌症复发的恐惧（FOR）是最普遍的社会心理问题，对于伴侣和护理人员来说，这种恐惧比患者本身更为明显。尽管有大量的轶事、临床和横断面证据，但令人惊讶的是，目前关于FOR的时间病程或预测谁将患有慢性和/或严重FOR的因素的经验知之甚少。本R21应用程序中提出的行为研究将是对BC幸存者及其配偶/伴侣生活中FOR的日常和长期预测因素的第一次全面而深入的调查。这项工作对BC幸存者（患者及其重要他人）的心理社会护理的临床实践指南具有重要意义，包括有效的以心理社会为重点的评估、干预服务和癌症幸存者规划。这项提议的工作代表了特拉华大学行为科学研究人员和海伦·f·格雷厄姆癌症中心（nci指定的社区癌症中心，位于特拉华州纽瓦克的克里斯蒂安娜保健卫生系统的一部分）之间正在进行的合作的下一步。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women across the US as well as developed and developing regions across the world. There are over 10 million Americans who live with a personal history of cancer and are thus considered to be cancer survivors. Among survivors, fear of cancer recurrence (FOR) is the most prevalent psychosocial concern and can be more pronounced for partners and caregivers than for the patients themselves. Despite substantial anecdotal, clinical, and cross-sectional evidence, at present there is surprisingly little known empirically about the temporal course of FOR or the factors that predict prospectively who will suffer from chronic and/or severe FOR. The behavioral research proposed in this R21 application will be the first comprehensive and intensive investigation into the everyday as well as longer-term predictors of FOR in the lives of BC survivors and their spouses/partners. This work has important implications for clinical practice guidelines for the psychosocial care of BC survivors (both patient and their significant others) including effective psychosocial-focused assessment, intervention services, and cancer survivorship programming. The proposed work represents the next step in an ongoing collaboration between behavioral science researchers at the University of Delaware and Helen F. Graham Cancer Center (an NCI-designated Community Cancer Center part of Christiana Care Health System, Newark, DE).