Kelly A Metcalfe1,2, Alexandra Candib2, Vasily Giannakeas2, Andrea Eisen3, Aletta Poll2, David McCready4, Tulin Cil4, Frances C Wright3, Susan Armel4, Karen Ott3, Ping Sun2, Steven A Narod5. 1. Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. 2. Women's College Research Institute, Women's College Hospital, 76 Grenville St., 6th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5S 1B2, Canada. 3. Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada. 4. Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada. 5. Women's College Research Institute, Women's College Hospital, 76 Grenville St., 6th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5S 1B2, Canada. steven.narod@wchospital.ca.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Many women with early-onset breast cancer experience adverse psychological sequelae which impact on their quality of life. We sought to correlate levels of anxiety and cancer-related distress in women with breast cancer shortly after surgery and one year after treatment with the estimated risk of death. METHODS: We studied 596 women with Stage I to III breast cancer. For each woman we estimated the five-year risk of death based on SEER data from 2010 to 2019. For each woman we measured anxiety and cancer-related distress levels shortly after surgery and one year later. RESULTS: The mean estimated five-year survival was 95%. At one week post-surgery, 59% of women had a clinically significant level of anxiety and 74% had a clinically significant level of cancer-related distress. There was no correlation between the objective risk of death and the level of anxiety or distress, at one week or at one year. CONCLUSIONS: Many women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancers experience significant levels of anxiety and distress. The emotional response to a breast cancer diagnosis is not related to the risk of death per se and other factors should be explored.
PURPOSE: Many women with early-onset breast cancer experience adverse psychological sequelae which impact on their quality of life. We sought to correlate levels of anxiety and cancer-related distress in women with breast cancer shortly after surgery and one year after treatment with the estimated risk of death. METHODS: We studied 596 women with Stage I to III breast cancer. For each woman we estimated the five-year risk of death based on SEER data from 2010 to 2019. For each woman we measured anxiety and cancer-related distress levels shortly after surgery and one year later. RESULTS: The mean estimated five-year survival was 95%. At one week post-surgery, 59% of women had a clinically significant level of anxiety and 74% had a clinically significant level of cancer-related distress. There was no correlation between the objective risk of death and the level of anxiety or distress, at one week or at one year. CONCLUSIONS: Many women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancers experience significant levels of anxiety and distress. The emotional response to a breast cancer diagnosis is not related to the risk of death per se and other factors should be explored.
Entities:
Keywords:
Anxiety; Breast cancer; Distress; Mortality; Risk of death