Aims: Scan-associated anxiety (‘scanxiety’) and tumour marker-related anxiety commonly occur in people with cancer. We aimed to explore the experiences of genitourinary cancer nurses with scanxiety and tumour marker-related anxiety in people with cancer.
Methods: A 30-item purpose-designed survey was distributed to nurses attending the Nurses Symposium at the 2019 Australian and New Zealand Urogenital and Prostate Cancer Trials Group (ANZUP) Annual Scientific Meeting. Questions on scanxiety and tumour marker-related anxiety included: (1) perceived prevalence and severity; (2) perceived contributing factors and; (3) nurses’ level of comfort organising scans and relaying scan and tumour marker results. Response format was 5-point Likert scales with analysis using descriptive statistics.
Results: Of the 34 participants, the median age was 50 years (range, 29-66 years). Most nurses had seen scanxiety in people with cancer (n=29/34, 85%). Of these, most nurses perceived scanxiety to occur ‘quite often’ (41%) or ‘very often’ (35%), and it was most commonly of ‘moderate’ severity (66%). Most nurses perceived ‘waiting for the results of a scan’ (82%) and ‘pre-existing anxiety or depression’ (94%) as factors contributing ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’ to scanxiety. Nurses were ‘not at all comfortable’ conveying scan results by phone (42%), email (70%), or print-out (48%) prior to patients being reviewed by their oncologist, while 62% were ‘very comfortable” discussing scan results after the oncologist consultation. Cancer nurses perceived tumour marker-related anxiety to occur ‘quite often’ (35%) or ‘very often’ (59%), and half (50%) thought it was ‘severe’.. Most nurses (68%) were ‘quite a bit’ or ‘very’ comfortable providing results of tumour markers to patients when asked.
Conclusions: Cancer nurses commonly see people with cancer who experience scanxiety or tumour marker-related anxiety. They are well-placed to help manage scanxiety in these people, but optimal strategies to do so require more research.