Death anxiety is identified as an important psychological factor that can affect the treatment experience and quality of life of patients with breast cancer. The reviewed clinical trial assessed whether a structured nurse-led support program combining in-person and online sessions could reduce levels of death anxiety in women undergoing therapy for breast cancer. The study was published in Support Care Cancer (PMID 42618834, DOI 10.1007/s00520-026-11119-6).
The trial enrolled adult women with breast cancer using a convenience sampling approach and randomized participants to intervention and control groups. The abstract reports a total sample figure of 66 women, and elsewhere cites group sizes of 35 individuals per group; this numerical inconsistency appears in the source and is not resolved in the abstract.
Assessment points included baseline (pre-intervention), immediately after completion of the intervention, and one month after the intervention. Outcome data were analyzed using SPSS version 21.0 with statistical significance set at p < 0.05. The source specifies p-values for outcomes but does not report the complete set of statistical tests used in the abstract.
The intervention was described as a comprehensive support program that was nurse-led and comprised six sessions delivered both in-person and virtually. The program targeted multiple domains of patient need: physical, psychological, spiritual, and sexual. The abstract characterizes the program as structured but does not provide a session-by-session manual, exact duration of sessions, facilitator training details, or fidelity monitoring procedures; those elements were not reported in the abstract.
The primary outcome reported in the abstract was death anxiety as measured by the Templer Death Anxiety Scale. Measurements were obtained at three time points: before the intervention, immediately after, and one month post-intervention. Data handling and analytic platform are reported (SPSS 21.0), with significance thresholds noted (p < 0.05). The abstract provides group means and standard deviations for post-intervention time points and a p-value but does not detail confidence intervals, effect size estimates, or handling of missing data in the abstract.
Reported group means for death anxiety indicated a substantial reduction in the intervention group relative to controls. Immediately after the intervention the intervention group mean score was reported as 3.2 ± 0.82 compared with 8.48 ± 2.61 in the control group; this difference is described as statistically significant. One month after the intervention the reported mean for the intervention group was 5.2 ± 0.73, while the control group remained at 8.48 ± 2.61; the comparison is reported with p < 0.001.
The abstract concludes that the structured nursing support program significantly reduced death anxiety among women with breast cancer undergoing hormonal therapy. Numeric results reported in the abstract are limited to the means, standard deviations, and p-values noted above.
The study was conducted in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. All participants provided informed consent before participation. Ethics approval was granted by the Research Ethics Committee of Jahrom University of Medical Sciences (approval number IR.JUMS.REC.1402.108). The trial was registered under IRCT20240120060738N1 (registration date in the source: 2024.01.28). The authors declared no competing interests.
Based on the reported findings, the authors recommend integrating structured nurse-led support programs into routine clinical care for women with breast cancer to address death anxiety and improve psychological well-being. The intervention’s multidomain focus (physical, psychological, spiritual, sexual) and hybrid delivery (in-person and online) align with models of comprehensive supportive care in oncology.
The abstract reports statistically significant reductions in death anxiety but omits several details important for interpretation and replication. Specific items not reported in the abstract include:
These reporting gaps limit assessment of generalizability and replicability based on the abstract alone; the full published article would need to be consulted for comprehensive methodological and contextual detail.
The published randomized clinical trial reports that a structured, six-session nurse-led support program delivered in-person and online reduced death anxiety measured by the Templer Death Anxiety Scale in women with breast cancer. The abstract provides group means and p-values indicating statistically significant improvements immediately after and one month following the intervention. Ethics approval and trial registration are reported. Several methodological and reporting details were not included in the abstract and are therefore not summarized here.