Journal
SUPPORTIVE CARE IN CANCER
Volume 31, Issue 4, Pages -Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s00520-023-07701-x
Keywords
Fear of cancer progression; Generalized anxiety disorder; Hematologic cancer survivors; Co-occurrence; Network analysis
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This study utilized network analysis to investigate the interconnectedness of fear of cancer progression and recurrence (FoP) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms in cancer patients. The findings support the hypothesis that FoP and GAD are distinct concepts within the field of oncology, but further validation is needed in future longitudinal studies.
PurposeFear of cancer progression and recurrence (FoP) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are syndromes commonly seen in cancer patients. This study applied network analysis to investigate how symptoms of both concepts are interconnected.MethodsWe used cross-sectional data from hematological cancer survivors. A regularized Gaussian graphical model including symptoms of FoP (FoP-Q) and GAD (GAD-7) was estimated. We investigated (i) the overall network structure and (ii) tested on pre-selected items whether both syndromes could be differentiated based on their worry content (cancer related vs. generalized). For this purpose, we applied a metric named bridge expected influence (BEI). Lower values mean that an item is only weakly connected with the items of the other syndrome, which can be an indication of its distinctive characteristic.ResultsOut of 2001 eligible hematological cancer survivors, 922 (46%) participated. The mean age was 64 years and 53% were female. The mean partial correlation within each construct (GAD: r = .13; FoP: r = .07) was greater than between both (r = .01). BEI values among items supposed to discriminate between the constructs (e.g., worry about many things within GAD and fear not to endure treatment within FoP) were among the smallest so our assumptions were confirmed.ConclusionsOur findings based on the network analysis support the hypothesis that FoP and GAD are different concepts within oncology. Our exploratory data needs to be validated in future longitudinal studies.
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