News • Disease-related distress
Cancer-related anxiety: tool reveals emotional impact
The URV is participating in the development of a new tool for detecting disease-related distress and its emotional impact
Image credit: URV
Fear that their cancer will progress or worsen is one of the most common concerns among people living with this disease. Several studies indicate that between 20% and 70% of cancer patients experience significant levels of anxiety related to the progression of their health. Identifying and measuring this concern is key to providing appropriate psychological care and improving patients’ quality of life. This has been the aim of a study led by the University of Barcelona (UB), the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) and CEU-San Pablo University, which for the first time has validated in the Spanish population the Spanish version of the Assessment of Survivor Concerns (ASC) questionnaire, a brief tool specifically designed to assess cancer- and health-related concerns.
The research, published in the journal Scientific Reports, involved 1,052 patients with advanced cancer from 15 hospitals in Spain between February 2020 and September 2023. During their visits to the oncology services, the patients completed various questionnaires to assess their cancer-related anxiety and other indicators relating to depression, psychological distress, symptoms and quality of life. The results show that the Spanish version of the questionnaire provides reliable and valid scores for clinical use.
The ASC scale consists of just six questions that explore aspects such as fear of cancer progression, worry about future diagnostic tests, fear of death, and concern for one’s own health and that of their children. The responses provide an overall score that reflects the patient’s level of worry.
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The study’s results indicate that the questionnaire measures a single dimension of cancer-related anxiety and performs consistently across different patient groups, regardless of sex, age or tumour type. This means that the tool assesses enables reliable comparisons to be made between individuals with diverse profiles.
The analysis also shows that individuals with higher scores on the questionnaire exhibit higher levels of anxiety, depression and general psychological distress, as well as a greater burden of physical symptoms and a poorer quality of life. These associations confirm that cancer-related anxiety has a direct impact on patients’ emotional and functional well-being.
Its application can help healthcare professionals to detect patients with high levels of concern at an early stage and to better guide psychological and support interventions
Urbano Lorenzo
The study also shows that women and younger people tend to have higher levels of concern, but that there were no significant differences were found according to cancer type. According to the research team, this pattern is consistent with results from research carried out in other countries.
The authors also highlight the brevity and ease of use of the ASC questionnaire, which makes it a particularly useful tool for routine clinical practice: “Its application can help healthcare professionals to detect patients with high levels of concern at an early stage and to better guide psychological and support interventions,” indicates Urbano Lorenzo, a researcher in the Department of Psychology at URV.
Source: Universitat Rovira i Virgili
23.03.2026
