Impact of a peer-delivered telephone intervention for women experiencing a breast cancer recurrence.
OBJECTIVE
A first breast cancer recurrence creates considerable distress, yet few psychosocial interventions directed at this population have been reported. The Southwest Oncology Group conducted a phase III randomized trial to evaluate the effectiveness of a brief telephone intervention.


METHODS
Three hundred five women experiencing a first recurrence of breast cancer were randomly assigned to standard care or intervention. The intervention consisted of four to eight telephone calls delivered over a 1-month period. The calls were conducted by trained peer counselors at a breast cancer advocacy organization, the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, and followed a standard curriculum. Psychosocial distress (Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System-Short Form [CARES-SF]) and depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale [CES-D]) outcomes were assessed at baseline and 3 and 6 months. The 3-month assessment was the primary end point and is the focus of this article.


RESULTS
Analysis revealed no differences in distress or depressive symptoms at 3 months between the intervention and control groups; at 3 months, 70% of control patients and 66% of intervention patients reported psychosocial distress, and 40% of control patients and 47% of intervention patients exhibited depressive symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
Telephone peer counseling did not lead to better psychosocial outcomes. The persistent distress in these women supports the urgent need for the development and testing of more intensive or different supportive interventions for this group of patients.
Gotay
Carolyn Cook
CC
Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA. cgotay@crch.hawaii.edu
Moinpour
Carol M
CM
Unger
Joseph M
JM
Jiang
Caroline S
CS
Coleman
Dorothy
D
Martino
Silvana
S
Parker
Beverly J
BJ
Bearden
James D
JD
Dakhil
Shaker
S
Gross
Howard M
HM
Lippman
Scott
S
Albain
Kathy S
KS
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D003376:Counseling; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D013689:Telephone