Cancer worry after facial nonmelanoma skin cancer resection and reconstruction: A 1‐year prospective study

Abstract

Objective: Nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is one of the most diagnosed cancers in the world, with the number of new occurrences rising every year. Most patients with facial skin cancer experience cancer-related worry. Yet, little is known about their worry during the period after cancer treatment. This study aimed to assess the long-term change of cancer worry after surgical treatment in patients with NMSC.Methods: Patients undergoing surgery for facial NMSC between December 2017 and March 2020 were asked to complete the FACE-Q Skin Cancer-Cancer Worry scale before (baseline), 3-month, and 1-year post-surgery.Results: A total of 151 patients completed the baseline and 3-month, and 99 (65.6%) the 1-year post-operative survey. A significant decrease in cancer worry score was seen between baseline and 3-month post-surgery (p < 0.001). No difference was found between the 3-month and 1-year post-surgery scores (p = 0.78).Less improvement in cancer worry was seen for patients who had one facial skin cancer in their medical history (p = 0.001) and patients who had a history of facial surgery (p < 0.001). Conclusion:Post-surgery patients still experience cancer worry. Therefore, targeted counseling might be of value when coping with cancer-related concerns.

Long-Term Patient-Reported Outcomes following Oncological Facial Reconstructive Surgery using the FACE-Q Skin Cancer Module

“…Previously reported short-term satisfaction with facial appearance and satisfaction with scars scores ranged from 60 to 81 and from 65 to 82, respectively. 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 21 In addition, the mean short-term cancer worry score was approximately 25 and psychosocial distress ranged from 17 to 39. However, cancer worry and psychosocial distress scores appeared to be slightly higher for long-term compared to the scores for short-term satisfaction.…”

“…Even though no formal comparison between short- and long-term data was performed, the results of this study appeared to be comparable to patient satisfaction reported after one to two years and could be used for counselling patients who need facial reconstructive surgery after MMS. 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 21 …”

“…This validated PROM has already been used in recent studies, which reported short-term PROs up to a maximum of one year in patients who were surgically treated for facial skin cancer. 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 However, to our knowledge no previous studies have been performed with respect to long-term PROs exceeding one year following oncological facial reconstructive surgery. Tracking long-term PROs is important to improve patient counselling, patient expectation management and shared decision-making.…”

Testing some psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Skin Cancer Index: A questionnaire for measuring quality of life in patients with non-melanoma skin cancer

“…The items of the SCI are particularly focused on worry, which is a component of anxiety and a frequent emotion in people with cancer in general, and in particular in NMSC ( Khoshab et al, 2020 ). In fact, it has been observed that even after surgery, patients with facial NMSC report cancer worry ( van Hensbergen et al, 2022 ), and such emotion has a strong impact on patients’ quality of life and wellbeing ( Radiotis et al, 2014 ). In this sample, the SCI had satisfactory internal consistency for all subscales.…”

Supportive Care Needs Among Head and Neck Cancer Patients Prior to Oncologic Treatment: A Prospective, Nested Cross-Sectional Qualitative Analysis

“…28 Cancer-related worry is an established survivorship issue, but has been primarily evaluated in posttreatment cancer patients. [29][30][31][32][33] Several discrete measures have been created to assess cancer-related worry, 25,34 highlighting the prevalence of this problem across survivors of all types of cancers, [29][30][31][32] including HNC survivors. 25 Less is known about cancer-related worry in pretreatment cancer survivors.…”