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Objective: We aimed to determine whether the Managing Cancer and Living Meaningfully (CALM) therapy is superior to a non-manualized supportive psycho-oncological counselling intervention (SPI). Methods: Adult patients with advanced cancer and ≥9 points on the PHQ-9 and/or ≥5 points on the DT were randomized to CALM or SPI. We hypothesized that CALM patients would report significantly less depression (primary outcome) on the BDI-II and the PHQ-9 6 months after baseline compared to SPI patients. Results: From 329 eligible patients, 206 participated (61.2% female; age: M = 57.9 [SD = 11.7]; 84.5% UICC IV stage). Of them, 99 were assigned to CALM and 107 to SPI. Intention-to-treat analyses revealed significantly less depressive symptoms at 6 months than at baseline (P < .001 for BDI-II and PHQ-9), but participants in the CALM and SPI group did not differ in depression severity (BDI-II: P = .62, PHQ-9: P = .998). Group differences on secondary outcomes were statistically not significant either. Conclusions: CALM therapy was associated with reduction in depressive symptoms over time but this improvement was not statistically significant different than that obtained within SPI group.

Purpose We aim to assess attitudes toward a COVID-19 vaccine and vaccination status in cancer patients and to explore additional factors such as the level of information and comprehensibility and accessibility of this information, anxiety symptoms in general and toward COVID-19, and general health literacy. Methods We included 425 outpatients (mean age 61.4, age range 30–88 years, 60.5% women) of the Psychosocial Counseling Center for Cancer patients of the Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Leipzig. We recorded attitudes toward a COVID-19 vaccine and vaccination status via self-report. The impact of psychosocial factors, including anxiety (GAD-7), COVID-19-specific anxiety (OCS; FCV-19S) and health literacy (HLS-EU-Q16) were analyzed with point-biserial correlations using Pearson’s r. Results We found that the vast majority (95.5%) reported being vaccinated against COVID-19 and that overall trust in safety and protective effects of a COVID-19 vaccine was high (90.9%). The vaccination readiness among nonvaccinated cancer survivors was low to very low with “fear of side effects” the most mentioned (72.2%) reason against a COVID-19 vaccine. There was no significant correlation between vaccination status and fear or anxiety symptomatology, and health literacy. Obsessive thoughts about COVID-19 was significantly higher in nonvaccinated cancer patients. Conclusions Majority of respondents are positive about COVID-19 vaccine, accompanied by a very high rate of COVID-19 immunization in our sample. Further studies with a larger sample of nonvaccinated cancer patients should further investigate the relationship on fear and vaccination hesitancy and align communication strategies accordingly.

The method of situating counselling centres at local health departments ensures good access for almost all cancer patients and relatives seeking counselling. However, due to restricted financial resources the services offered are not sufficient according to the guidelines and solutions for this situation are needed.

Krebs gehört zu den häufigsten Erkrankungen bei Erwachsenen. Trotz einer weltweit steigenden Inzidenz überleben viele Menschen heute die Krankheit. Die multimodalen Therapien, die das Leben verlängern, beeinträchtigen die Lebensqualität von Patienten. Überleben bedeutet deshalb für viele Betroffene auch ein Leben mit körperlichen und psychosozialen Folgeproblemen. Die Psychoonkologie bietet eine evidenzbasierte Versorgung für Patienten und Angehörige an.