Fear of Cancer Recurrence in Patients With Localized Renal Cell Carcinoma

Abstract

PURPOSE: Patients with cancer commonly report distress and fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) impacting quality of life and clinical outcomes. This study aims to test the association between emotional well-being and clinical characteristics of survivors with localized renal cell carcinoma (RCC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Survivors with localized RCC were invited to participate in this study through social media by the Kidney Cancer Research Alliance. Participants self-reported clinical characteristics, distress (Distress Thermometer), and FCR (Fear of Cancer Recurrence-7). Ordinal regression was used to test the association between emotional well-being and patient characteristics. RESULTS: A total of 412 survivors were included in this analysis. Participants were mostly female (79.4%) and well educated (58.3%), with a median age of 54 years (range, 30-80 years) and median time since diagnosis of 17.5 months. More than one half were diagnosed with stage I disease (56.1%). Most patients (62.3%) had a clear understanding of their diagnosis. A high prevalence of moderate to severe distress (67.0%) and FCR (54.9%) was reported across all survivors of RCC. Higher FCR was associated with female gender, younger age, and lack of understanding of their diagnosis ( P = .001), whereas more recent diagnosis was associated with higher distress levels ( P = .01). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that FCR is a common problem that is persistent after therapy and that certain individuals, including female and younger patients, may be at particular risk of experiencing clinically relevant FCR.