Protective Factors against Fear of Cancer Recurrence in Breast Cancer Patients: A Latent Growth Model

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Journal of Cancers

Research Article;

The article entitled “Protective Factors against Fear of Cancer Recurrence in Breast Cancer Patients: A Latent Growth Model ’’. The authors tried their best to investigate the The Fear of Cancer Recurrence trajectory and protective predictors, in women coping with breast cancer. The study’s investigated higher coping self-efficacy and positive cognitive-emotion regulation at the time of breast cancer diagnosis would lead to reduced levels of Fear of Cancer Recurrence at six months. The study emphasizes the importance of developing specific cancer coping skills, such as coping self-efficacy. Enhancing coping self-efficacy in the first six months after breast cancer diagnosis may lead to lower Fear of Cancer Recurrence levels later on, as Fear of Cancer Recurrence tends to persist in the following year.

I carefully read the manuscript and found it suitable for publication in the journal. I accept this article for possible publication. There are some common mistakes in the article which must be corrected by the authors. After the correction of all the mistakes, the article could be considered for publication in the prestigious Cancers Journal.

Comments for Authors

Ø Write keywords in alphabetical order.

Ø One the abbreviation are used then must be include during complete manuscript. The author needs to revised the abbreviation. 

Ø Why the author selected these Italy, Finland, Israel, and Portugal centre. The author didn’t explain the reason.

Ø The author didn’t include the social impact of the person life and economic life impact. As it could bring the Fear of Cancer Recurrence. Why?

Ø The author didn’t include the reason of treatment. could they have trust on treatment option which is provided on various stages.

Cite the following references;

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phymed.2021.153500 

 

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors, 

thank you for your interesting work. here are my suggestions:

- Introduction: I really appreciated the welll-done introduction section, which explore cognitive and emotional strategies to cope FCR. However, I argue that FCR's causes are missed.  Currently, literature evidences the relevance of interoceptive sensations in the perception of the body as dangerous and weak, for example. Thus, any sensations is perceived as a cancer-related issue, which notable consequences on well-being. Please, add details about it (see: Lewis-Smith et al., 2018; Sebri et al., 2022)

- Matherials and Methods: As stated in the contribution, you enrolled participants between 40 and 70 years of age. I am wondering to be sure that this range of age is not too large in order to have an homogeneous sample. As known, cancer patients have different physical and emotional issues and age affect them strongly. How do you explain your sample size choice? Additionally, who conducted each phase? Did you send to patients an online link with the battery of questionnaires? Please, clarify the processo of recruitment at all. 

- Results: please, adjust the typos at line 320.

- Discussion: thank you for the discussion section and the literature references. Just an additional suggestion: Could have the social support a relevant role in influencing the FCR? I agree with your considerations; however, I argue that a bio-psycho-social perspective is mandatory (see: Zheng et al., 2022)

References: 

- Lewis-Smith, H.; Diedrichs, P.C.; Harcourt, D. A pilot study of a body image intervention for breast cancer survivors. Body Image 2018, 27, 21–31

- Sebri, V., Durosini, I., Mazzoni, D., & Pravettoni, G. (2022). The body after cancer: A qualitative study on breast cancer survivors’ body representation. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(19), 12515.

- Zheng, W., Hu, M., & Liu, Y. (2022). Social support can alleviate the fear of cancer recurrence in postoperative patients with lung carcinoma. American journal of translational research, 14(7), 4804.

Author Response

Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

No other revisions are needed