Psycho-Oncology

This book examines in detail the psychosocial impacts of cancer and its management, explaining the relevance of psycho-oncology during all stages from diagnosis and treatment through to cancer survivorship and rehabilitation and end-of-life care. This new edition has been revised throughout to reflect the latest knowledge and places particular emphasis on patients’ perspectives and what professionals can learn from patients. Readers will find information on a variety of psycho-oncological interventions, and detailed attention is paid to quality of life and patient-reported outcomes (as key benchmarks for successful coping) and to the fear of progression during and after therapy. Entirely new chapters focus on the psychological impact of individualized therapies in oncology, communication skills training, medical risk communication, and current research approaches in psycho-oncology. Written by leading experts in the field, the book will serve as a valuable resource for all health care professionals who work with patients and their relatives in the field of psychosocial cancer care and oncology.

Ute Goerling, Dr. rer. nat., is currently head of the Department of Psycho-oncology at the Charite Comprehensive Cancer Center in Berlin. She has many years of experience in psycho-oncological interventions and research. As a practitioner, she is particularly interested in activating resources and promoting adaptive coping with illness in her clients. She did her PhD at the Humboldt University in Berlin, investigating the efficacy of short-term psycho-oncological interventions in cancer patients. Further special areas of interest in her research are the evaluation of need for supportive psychosocial care and specific aspects of quality of life of cancer patients after surgery. She was the sole editor of the first edition of Psycho-oncology (published in Recent Results in Cancer Research).

Anja Mehnert, PhD, is chair of the Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology at the University Medical Center Leipzig. She graduated in Psychology from the University of Hamburg. In 2005, she completed her PhD on trauma and stress before being appointed postdoctoral research fellow at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York (2007–8). In 2010 she completed her Habilitation thesis at the University of Hamburg on return to work among cancer survivors. Her research topics include cancer survivorship issues, psychological co-morbidity and distress screening, as well as psychotherapy and health services research in psycho-oncology. She is co-editor and co-author of five books and more than 130 academic publications.