The research, in plain language.

Founding paper of the biopsychosocial model — illness is shaped by biological, psychological and social factors together, not biology alone.

Engel, G. L. (1977). The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine. Science, 196(4286), 129–136.

Overview of how psychological care should be embedded across the cancer journey, not bolted on at the end.

Grassi, L., Spiegel, D., & Riba, M. (2017). Advancing psychosocial care in cancer patients. F1000Research, 6, 2083.

Meta-analysis of 94 studies: clinically significant depression, anxiety and adjustment disorders are common in cancer care.

Mitchell, A. J., Chan, M., Bhatti, H., Halton, M., Grassi, L., Johansen, C., & Meader, N. (2011). Prevalence of depression, anxiety, and adjustment disorder in oncological, haematological, and palliative-care settings. The Lancet Oncology, 12(2), 160–174.

Roughly one in two cancer patients reaches a clinically meaningful threshold of distress. Distress is the rule, not the exception.

Mehnert, A., Hartung, T. J., Friedrich, M., et al. (2018). One in two cancer patients is significantly distressed: Prevalence and indicators of distress. Psycho-Oncology, 27(1), 75–82.

Fear of recurrence is one of the most common and persistent unmet needs of survivors — survival doesn't equal recovery.

Simard, S., Thewes, B., Humphris, G., Dixon, M., Hayden, C., Mireskandari, S., & Ozakinci, G. (2013). Fear of cancer recurrence in adult cancer survivors: a systematic review of quantitative studies. Journal of Cancer Survivorship, 7(3), 300–322.

Defines clinical-level fear of recurrence — when fear stops being a normal response and becomes disabling.

Lebel, S., Ozakinci, G., Humphris, G., Mutsaers, B., Thewes, B., Prins, J., Dinkel, A., & Butow, P. (2016). From normal response to clinical problem: definition and clinical features of fear of cancer recurrence. Supportive Care in Cancer, 24(8), 3265–3268.

RCT evidence that meaning-centered psychotherapy reduces existential distress and hopelessness in advanced cancer.

Breitbart, W., Pessin, H., Rosenfeld, B., Applebaum, A. J., Lichtenthal, W. G., Li, Y., et al. (2015). Individual meaning-centered psychotherapy for the treatment of psychological and existential distress: A randomized controlled trial in patients with advanced cancer. Cancer, 121(21), 3779–3788.

Foundational text on the four existential concerns — death, freedom, isolation and meaninglessness — that surface in serious illness.

Yalom, I. D. (1980). Existential Psychotherapy. Basic Books.

Reviews behavioural and neural evidence that women, on average, score higher on affective empathy measures.

Christov-Moore, L., Simpson, E. A., Coudé, G., Grigaityte, K., Iacoboni, M., & Ferrari, P. F. (2014). Empathy: Gender effects in brain and behavior. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 46, 604–627.

How masculinity norms shape (and often suppress) men's help-seeking for mental health.

Gough, B., & Novikova, I. (2020). Mental health, men and culture. WHO Regional Office for Europe.

The 16-item TEQ — a short, validated empathy scale used in our PSY332 project.

Spreng, R. N., McKinnon, M. C., Mar, R. A., & Levine, B. (2009). The Toronto Empathy Questionnaire. Journal of Personality Assessment, 91(1), 62–71.

Items adapted in our project to measure cancer knowledge, attitudes and help-seeking beliefs.

Kala, G., Mir, M. S., Pandey, N., Srivastava, S., Sharma, S., & Purohit, J. S. (2023). Knowledge, awareness and attitude towards cancer. Journal of Public Health and Development, 21(3), 246–261.