COLUMBUS, Ohio – Lung cancer is the top cause of cancer deaths worldwide, but its psychological and physical toll is little studied. Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James) led a study that showed how vital it is to overall health for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to have positive psychological perceptions of their illness and treatment.

The study, recently published in Health Psychology which is the journal of the American Psychological Association, was led by Barbara L. Andersen, PhD, professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.

“To date, we have known little about how patients with lung cancer understand and perceive this difficult illness,” said Andersen. “Although promising targeted and immunotherapy treatments are now available, it was unclear how patients would actually view the likelihood of their benefit from these advances in medical therapy.”

The researchers hypothesized that patients with NSCLC who had positive or negative perceptions of their illness would also have different outcomes during treatment.

Study methods and results
Researchers from the OSUCCC – James enrolled 186 patients with stage IV NSCLC at diagnosis. At that time, patients reported perceptions about their disease, such as how long it would last and thoughts about the effectiveness of their upcoming treatment. The patients then began treatment and completed a monthly survey for the next eight months, reporting their levels of anxiety and depression, physical symptoms and general health.

As a group, patients reported reduced anxiety and physical symptoms, however, they said their depression and pain did not improve during treatment. However, patients who, at diagnosis, reported the most negative views of their illness and any likelihood of treatment helping, had the poorest outcomes across all measures. Other patients with more positive perceptions of their illness and treatment fared better in both psychological and physical symptom areas.

These data suggest that negative illness perceptions at diagnosis, much like symptoms of depression, can be early markers of patients at risk for specific vulnerabilities during treatment. This includes symptoms of depression and treatment side effects.

Thomas Valentine, PhD, also was a lead author on this study while he was a doctoral candidate at Ohio State. Valentine is now an applied research scientist in behavioral health at the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

This research was supported by funding by Pelotonia and the National Cancer Institute through Ohio State’s Training Grant.

To learn more about cancer treatment and clinical trials at the OSUCCC – James, visit cancer.osu.edu or call 1-800-293-5066.

Media Contact: Mary Ellen Fiorino, Mary.Fiorino@osumc.edu