Relationship between cognitive flexibility and fear of cancer recurrence in breast cancer patients

Introduction: Breast cancer is one of the most common chronic diseases and the second leading cause of death among women. Fear of cancer recurrence is a major problem for many cancer survivors. Since cognitive flexibility refers to an individual's assessment of the controllability of stressful conditions, we decided to examine the relationship between cognitive flexibility and fear of breast cancer recurrence. Method: The present study is a descriptive-correlational research carried out on 143 breast cancer patients who are the members of the Gorgan Cancer Association. For data collection, we used demographic checklist, Dennis et al. (2010) cognitive flexibility questionnaire, and Simard and Savard (2009) cancer recurrence fear questionnaire. The data were analyzed in SPSS16 software at statistical level (p≤ 0.05). Results: The results of Pearson correlation test showed a significant negative relationship between cognitive flexibility and its three aspects with fear of cancer recurrence (r = -0.485). Conclusion: The results showed that cognitive flexibility has a significant negative relationship with the fear of cancer recurrence in patients with breast cancer. Therefore, it is necessary to increase cognitive flexibility in breast cancer treatment planning.