The DOI matches its Crossref record; 30 of the 30 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Individual Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Patients With Advanced Cancer
Open accessAbstract
Purpose: Spiritual well-being and sense of meaning are important concerns for clinicians who care for patients with cancer. We developed Individual Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy (IMCP) to address the need for brief interventions targeting spiritual well-being and meaning for patients with advanced cancer. Patients and Methods: Patients with stage III or IV cancer (N = 120) were randomly assigned to seven sessions of either IMCP or therapeutic massage (TM). Patients were assessed before and after completing the intervention and 2 months postintervention. Primary outcome measures assessed spiritual well-being and quality of life; secondary outcomes included anxiety, depression, hopelessness, symptom burden, and symptom-related distress. Results: Of the 120 participants randomly assigned, 78 (65%) completed the post-treatment assessment and 67 (56%) completed the 2-month follow-up. At the post-treatment assessment, IMCP participants demonstrated significantly greater improvement than the control condition for the primary outcomes of spiritual well-being (b = 0.39; P <.001, including both components of spiritual well-being (sense of meaning: b = 0.34; P = .003 and faith: b = 0.42; P = .03), and quality of life (b = 0.76; P = .013). Significantly greater improvements for IMCP patients were also observed for the secondary outcomes of symptom burden (b = −6.56; P < .001) and symptom-related distress (b = −0.47; P < .001) but not for anxiety, depression, or hopelessness. At the 2-month follow-up assessment, the improvements observed for the IMCP group were no longer significantly greater than those observed for the TM group. Conclusion: IMCP has clear short-term benefits for spiritual suffering and quality of life in patients with advanced cancer. Clinicians working with patients who have advanced cancer should consider IMCP as an approach to enhance quality of life and spiritual well-being.
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“Additionally, early randomized controlled trials have shown that a meaning-centered therapy, delivered either in a group or individual format, can help raise meaning and purpose in life among people with cancer (32, 33).”
From Purpose in life and use of preventive health care services (2014) · cites this paper as [32]
In the citing paper
“Individual MCP was compared with a control group (massage therapists), and the results showed that MCP produced a greater improvement in meaning in life, spiritual wellbeing, faith, physical symptoms of distress, burnout, and quality of life.”
From Spanish Adaptation of Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Participants With Cancer: Study Protocol of a Randomized Control Trial (2022) · cites this paper as [13]
In the citing paper
“The same authors indicated that there were no statistically significant improvements in depression or anxiety.”
From Spanish Adaptation of Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Participants With Cancer: Study Protocol of a Randomized Control Trial (2022) · cites this paper as [13]
In the citing paper
“However, the improvement was not sustained at 2 months.”
From Spanish Adaptation of Meaning-Centered Psychotherapy for Participants With Cancer: Study Protocol of a Randomized Control Trial (2022) · cites this paper as [13]
In the citing paper
“Further, many interventions for adults with metastatic cancer (e.g., [14, 23]) are disconnected from the scientific evidence base on how to effectively reduce distress or change behavior.”
In the citing paper
“Palliative care research has developed personally tailored, individually delivered interventions requiring significant resources (e.g., [14, 23, 38])”
In the citing paper
“An increasing number of randomized controlled trials show that purpose in life can be raised.”
From Purpose in life and use of preventive health care services (2014) · cites this paper as [32]
In the citing paper
“findings of physical benefits from interventions designed to enhance R/S indicate that R/S does contribute to better health.39-41”
From Religion, spirituality, and physical health in cancer patients: A meta‐analysis (2015) · cites this paper as [39]
In the citing paper
“Although few spiritually-based interventions have been tested in cancer patients, available data suggest that they may improve quality of life and physical recovery. 39-41”
From Religion, spirituality, and physical health in cancer patients: A meta‐analysis (2015) · cites this paper as [39]
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“23,25,31 Thus, the therapist – -client relationship is the primary therapeutic relationship in individual MCP with the potential for a range of techniques to be adapted as needed (e.g., personal narrative work and existential questioning) in a more easily controlled and intimate environment that…”
Self-citationChen, C., Feng, Y., He, Y., & Ji, C. (2026) · Psycho-Oncologie · doi:10.18282/po5628
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“…psychotherapeutic approaches that incorporate spiritual and existential dimensions such as meaning-cen-tered therapy, spiritual psychotherapy, or culturally adapted cognitive-behavioral therapy may enhance treatment outcomes for individuals whose worldviews include spiritual frameworks [65, 66].”
Espiritualidad: un elemento clave en el estándar de cuidados del paciente oncológico
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“30 For Mr.”
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“This interpretation is concordant with prior reports showing that CKM may reduce treatment burden while preserving quality of life in selected populations [1–3, 9, 10], and with broader literature emphasizing the existential and supportive care needs of patients with advanced kidney disease [11–13].”
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“52,53 Prior research suggests that psilocybin’s capacity to induce mystical-type experiences, often described as “ego-dissolving” or “transcendent,” may further enable psychological resolution and emotional catharsis.”
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“Specifically, meaning-centered psychotherapy, dignity therapy, and interventions focused on identifying values may be associated with lower demoralization and depressive symptoms (Chochinov et al., 2005; Breitbart et al., 2012; Sethi et al., 2020).”
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“…Of the 32 studies reporting on adverse events [28, 51–81, 81–84,121], the majority were conducted in three regions: North America (38%, n = 12) [51,53–56, 59, 67,68 ,70,72 Massage characteristics were similar between studies reporting and not reporting on adverse events, with Swedish massage…”
Integrating Evidence on Dignity Therapy in Cancer Care: A Review
Vinu, M., & Sharma, P. (2026) · Indian Journal of Palliative Care · doi:10.25259/ijpc_428_2025
“[5] These gaps in standard treatment highlight the necessity of therapies such as DT, which is particularly designed to address the psychological and existential issues experienced by patients with life-limiting diseases.”
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Más allá de la depresión. Fenomenología del sufrimiento no patológico
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“…Frankl’s logotherapy, MCP has been associated with reductions in existential distress, hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and desire for hastened death, while improving spiritual well-being and quality of life among patients with advanced cancer (Breitbart et al. 2012; Rosenfeld et al. 2017).”
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Gwon, T., & Jung, H. O. (2026) · Palliative & Supportive Care · doi:10.1017/s1478951526103599
“…some focused on a single construct such as meaning in life (Sun et al. 2021, 2022), whereas others assessed a broader panel of existential variables, including SWB, quality of life, purpose, and posttraumatic growth (Breitbart et al. 2010, 2012; van der Spek et al. 2017; Kissane et al. 2023).”
InfluentialKuo, M. C., & Kiernan, C. M. (2026) · BMJ Open Quality · doi:10.1136/bmjoq-2026-004309
Metadata
- Authors
- Breitbart, W., Poppito, S., Rosenfeld, B., Vickers, A. J., Li, Y., Abbey, J., Olden, M., Pessin, H., Lichtenthal, W., Sjoberg, D., & Cassileth, B. R.
- Affiliations
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (US)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Clinical Oncology
- Published
- 2012-04-20
- Volume
- 30
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 1304-1309
- ISSN
- 0732-183X (ISSN-L)
- 1527-7755
- PMC
- PMC3646315
- OpenAlex
- W2099057220
- Cited by
- 426
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 21 · 2022: 32 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 31 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 39 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 32.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Clinical Oncology (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (P30CA008748)
- National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (R21AT001031)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Palliative and Oncologic Care
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Keywords
- advanced cancer, spiritual well-being, meaningfulness, faith, quality of life, therapeutic massage, symptom burden, brief psychotherapy, spiritual distress
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Anxiety Disorders, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Lymphoma, Non-Hodgkin, Male, Middle Aged, Neoplasm Staging, Neoplasms, Patient Compliance, Pilot Projects, Prospective Studies, Psychotherapy, Psychotherapy, Group, Quality of Life, Terminal Care, Multivariate Analysis, Linear Models, Treatment Outcome, Terminally Ill, Spirituality, Precision Medicine
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