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. 2021 Nov;30(11):1948-1956.
doi: 10.1002/pon.5748. Epub 2021 Jul 22.

The role of interpretation biases and symptom burden in fear of cancer recurrence/progression among ovarian cancer survivors

Poorva Pradhan  1 , Louise Sharpe  1 , Phyllis Butow  1 , Hayley Russell  2
Affiliations

The role of interpretation biases and symptom burden in fear of cancer recurrence/progression among ovarian cancer survivors

Poorva Pradhan et al. Psychooncology. 2021 Nov.

Abstract

Background: Models of fear of cancer recurrence or progression (FCR/P) suggest that the way in which people interpret ambiguous physical symptoms is an important contributor to the development and maintenance of FCR/P, but research has not investigated this claim. The aim of this study is to fill that gap.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Sixty-two women with ovarian cancer reported completed measures of FCR/P, an interpretation bias task and a symptom checklist. The healthy control group (n = 96) completed the interpretation bias task.

Results: Women with ovarian cancer were more likely to interpret ambiguous words as health-related compared to healthy women (p < 0.001; Cohen's d = 1.28). In women with cancer, FCR/P was associated with overall symptom burden (r = 0.25; p = 0.04) and interpretation bias score (r = 0.41; p = 0.001), but interpretation bias and symptom burden were not related (r = 0.22; p = 0.09). Interpretation bias did not moderate the relationship between symptoms and FCR/P.

Conclusions: We found that women with ovarian cancer interpreted ambiguous words as health related more often compared to women without cancer, and this bias was greater for women with higher FCR/P. Symptom burden was also associated with FCR/P. However, interpretation bias did not moderate the relationship between physical symptoms and FCR/P. Hence, the central tenet of the Cancer Threat Interpretation model was not supported in women with ovarian cancer.

Keywords: cancer; cancer survivorship; cognitive biases; fear of cancer recurrence/progression; interpretation bias; oncology; ovarian cancer.

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References

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