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.