Cognitive factors in breast cancer: Mental adjustment style, benefit finding, and fear of recurrence

Background/Purpose: This symposium aims to address the following clinical and theoretical issues.
(a) Whether there is a developmental change in mental adjustment styles during the recovery process?
(b) What are the unique and shared characteristics of constructive versus illusory types of posttraumatic growth (PTG)?
(c) The efficacy of a brief mindfulness based intervention program on changing mental adjustment styles and fear of cancer recurrence among cancer survivors.
Methods: The first two presentations were based on the results of a 7‐year longitudinal survey study among 248 breast cancer survivors. The final presentation was an outcome intervention study among 22 breast cancer women. All studies were conducted at the Koo Foundation Sun Yat‐Sen Cancer Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
Results: Presentation 1 showed that there was a decline in fighting spirit and an increase in fatalism during the 7‐year post‐treatment recovery period. Presentation 2 demonstrated that patients with illusory PTG tended to exhibit a maladaptive mental adjustment profile whereas those with constructive PTG tended to exhibit an adaptive coping profile. Finally, results of presentation 3 suggested that mindfulness based intervention reduced fear of cancer recurrence via reducing cognitive avoidance among breast cancer survivors.
Conclusions: Taken together, this symposium highlights the importance of patients' subjective cognition in cancer adjustment. Fatalism (passive acceptance), similar to fighting spirit, can be an adaptive coping. Self‐reported positive changes may represent a cognitive strategy to cope with cancer rather than an authentic growth. Mindfulness intervention to cultivate an acceptance attitude is beneficial to adjustment.