The DOI matches its Crossref record; 65 of the 66 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Influence of psychological coping on survival and recurrence in people with cancer: systematic review
Open accessAbstract
Objective: To summarise the evidence on the effect of psychological coping styles (including fighting spirit, helplessness/hopelessness, denial, and avoidance) on survival and recurrence in patients with cancer. Design: Systematic review of published and unpublished prospective observational studies. Main outcome measures: Survival from or recurrence of cancer. Results: 26 studies investigated the association between psychological coping styles and survival from cancer, and 11 studies investigated recurrence. Most of the studies that investigated fighting spirit (10 studies) or helplessness/hopelessness (12 studies) found no significant associations with survival or recurrence. The evidence that other coping styles play an important part was also weak. Positive findings tended to be confined to small or methodologically flawed studies; lack of adjustment for potential confounding variables was common. Positive conclusions seemed to be more commonly reported by smaller studies, indicating potential publication bias. Conclusion: There is little consistent evidence that psychological coping styles play an important part in survival from or recurrence of cancer. People with cancer should not feel pressured into adopting particular coping styles to improve survival or reduce the risk of recurrence. What is already known on this topic: Survival from cancer is commonly thought to be influenced by a person's psychological coping style Some studies have shown that a coping style involving fighting spirit rather than helplessness/hopelessness is associated with survival and recurrence, though the evidence is inconsistent What this study adds: This systematic review suggests that there is no consistent association between psychological coping and outcome of cancer Publication bias and methodological flaws in some of the primary studies may explain some of the previous positive findings There is no good evidence to support the development of psychological interventions to promote particular types of coping in an attempt to prolong survival
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“A systematic review on repression in cancer survival yielded somewhat inconclusive results [186, 187].”
From Personality and Longevity: Knowns, Unknowns, and Implications for Public Health and Personalized Medicine (2011) · cites this paper as [186]
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Dermyshi, E., Wang, Y., Yan, C., Hong, W., Qiu, G., Gong, X., & Zhang, T. (2017) · Neonatology · doi:10.1159/000454668 · Cited by 24,586
Meta-analysis of Observational Studies in Epidemiology<SUBTITLE>A Proposal for Reporting</SUBTITLE>
Stroup, D. F. (2000) · JAMA · doi:10.1001/jama.283.15.2008 · Cited by 20,623
Impact of Event Scale: A Measure of Subjective Stress
Horowitz, M., Wilner, N., & Alvarez, W. (1979) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/00006842-197905000-00004 · Cited by 7,813
The measurement of pessimism: the hopelessness scale
Beck, A. T., Weissman, A., Lester, D., & Trexler, L. (1974) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/h0037562 · Cited by 5,494
Stressful Life Events: Their Nature and Effects.
Harper, D., Dohrenwend, B. S., & Dohrenwend, B. P. (1976) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/2062639 · Cited by 1,398
Statistical Methods in Epidemiology
(2012) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/springerreference_205629 · Cited by 1,123
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESPONSE TO BREAST CANCER: EFFECT ON OUTCOME
Greer, S., Morris, T., & Pettingale, K. W. (1979) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(79)92127-5 · Cited by 774
Influence of psychological response on survival in breast cancer: a population-based cohort study
Watson, M., Haviland, J., Greer, S., Davidson, J., & Bliss, J. (1999) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(98)11392-2 · Cited by 705
Development of a questionnaire measure of adjustment to cancer: the MAC scale
Watson, M., Greer, S., Young, J., Inayat, Q., Burgess, C., & Robertson, B. (1988) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291700002026 · Cited by 666
Psychological coping mechanisms and survival time in metastatic breast cancer.
Derogatis, L., Abeloff, M., & Melisaratos, N. (1979) · Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) · doi:10.1001/jama.1979.03300140020016 · Cited by 514
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Cody, 1994, Psychosocial factors and lung cancer prognosis, Psychooncology, 3, 141
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Experimental disclosure and its moderators: A meta-analysis.
Frattaroli, J. (2006) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.6.823 · Cited by 1,502
Evaluation of the Quality of Prognosis Studies in Systematic Reviews
Hayden, J. A., Côté, P., & Bombardier, C. (2006) · Annals of Internal Medicine · doi:10.7326/0003-4819-144-6-200603210-00010 · Cited by 1,452
Do stress-related psychosocial factors contribute to cancer incidence and survival?
Chida, Y., Hamer, M., Wardle, J., & Steptoe, A. (2008) · Nature Clinical Practice Oncology · doi:10.1038/ncponc1134 · Cited by 1,072
Mood disorders in the medically ill: scientific review and recommendations
Evans, D. L., Charney, D. S., Lewis, L., Golden, R. N., Gorman, J. M., Krishnan, K. R. R., Nemeroff, C. B., Bremner, J. D., Carney, R. M., Coyne, J. C., et al. (2005) · Biological Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2005.05.001 · Cited by 1,071
Dissemination and publication of research findings: an updated review of related biases
Song, F., Parekh, Hooper, L., Loke, Y., Ryder, J., Sutton, A., Hing, C., Kwok, C., Pang, C., & Harvey, I. (2010) · Health Technology Assessment · doi:10.3310/hta14080 · Cited by 1,039
Metadata
- Authors
- Petticrew, M., Bell, R., & Hunter, D.
- Affiliations
- MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (GB)
- Queen's University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Petticrew, Mark
- Venue
- BMJ
- Publisher
- BMJ
- Published
- 2002-11-09
- Volume
- 325
- Issue
- 7372
- Pages
- 1066.1
- ISSN
- 0007-1447 (ISSN-L)
- 0959-8138
- 1468-5833
- PMC
- PMC131179
- OpenAlex
- W2114172104
- Cited by
- 310
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 13 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 1.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- www.bmj.com/company/legal-information/terms-conditions/legal-information/tdm-licencepolicy (tdm)
- Locations
- BMJ (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (acceptedVersion)
- LSHTM Research Online (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) (acceptedVersion)
- DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
- Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer, Stress, Anesthesia, and Immune Response
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Global Cancer Incidence and Screening
- Keywords
- cancer survival, tumor recurrence, fighting spirit, helplessness, hopelessness, denial, avoidance, psychological intervention, publication bias, methodological errors
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Anxiety, Avoidance Learning, Denial, Psychological, Depression, Emotions, Humans, Neoplasm Recurrence, Local, Neoplasms, Prognosis, Prospective Studies, Cohort Studies, Publication Bias, Survivors
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
