Nonmelanoma Skin Cancer: Disease-Specific Quality-of-Life Concerns and Distress

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To provide a better understanding of the disease-specific quality-of-life (QOL) concerns of patients with nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC). DESIGN: Cross-sectional. SETTING: Skin cancer clinic of Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. SAMPLE: 56 patients with basal cell carcinoma and/or squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS: Descriptive and inferential statistics applied to quantitative self-report data. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES: Importance of appearance, psychological distress, and QOL. FINDINGS: The most prevalent concerns included worries about tumor recurrence, as well as the potential size and conspicuousness of the scar. Skin cancer-specific QOL concerns significantly predicted distress manifested through anxious and depressive symptomology. In addition, the social concerns related to the disease were the most significant predictor of distress. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study provide healthcare professionals with a broad picture of the most prevalent NMSC-specific concerns, as well as the concerns that are of particular importance for different subgroups of patients. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING: Nurses are in a position to provide pivotal psychosocial and informational support to patients, so they need to be aware of the often-overlooked psychosocial effects of NMSC to address these issues and provide optimal care.