Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40325614›Full record

ArticlePsycho-oncology2025

Getting Cancer Is "Just Bad Luck": Exploring Bereaved Emerging and Young Adults' Cancer Risk Uncertainty After Caring for a Parent With Advanced Cancer.

Amanda Kastrinos, Caroline Salafia, Rebecca R Gebert, Emily L Mroz, Carla L Fisher, Allison J Applebaum

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Psycho-oncology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

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PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

Amanda KastrinosDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA.
Caroline SalafiaDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA.
Rebecca R GebertDepartment of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, USA.
Emily L MrozSection of Geriatrics, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Carla L FisherDepartment of Health Outcomes and Behavioral Informatics, University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, Florida, USA.
Allison J ApplebaumIcahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.

Funding

X-RAY CRYSTALLOGRAPHYP30CA008748 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES · PI SELWYN M VICKERS · 1985 to 2026
$347.4M
Psychosocial Palliative & Community Research in CancerT32CA009461 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INSTITUTE FOR CANCER RES · PI JENNIFER L HAY, Jamie S. Ostroff · 1985 to 2026
$10.1M
Yale Training Program in Geriatric Clinical Epidemiology and Aging-Related ResearchT32AG019134 · NIA · YALE UNIVERSITY · PI Terri R. Fried · 2001 to 2026
$7.5M
Developing a communication support intervention for cancer caregivers in emerging and young adulthoodK99CA279651 · NCI · SLOAN-KETTERING INST CAN RESEARCH · PI KASTRINOS, AMANDA · 2024 to 2025
$270k
Cancer Center, University of Florida HealthNational Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute K99CA279651National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute P30CA008748National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute T32CA009461NCI NIH HHS K99 CA279651NCI NIH HHS P30 CA008748NCI NIH HHS T32 CA009461NIA NIH HHS T32 AG019134NIA NIH HHS T32AG019134
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundEmerging and young adult caregivers (EYACs) who provide care to a parent with advanced cancer are underrepresented in caregiving scholarship, and yet, are not uncommon. Little is known about the psychosocial impacts of caring for a parent at this age or how EYACs manage their uncertainty regarding their own, potentially elevated, future cancer risk.

aimsTo employ Uncertainty Management Theory (UMT) to examine how bereaved EYACs of a parent who died of advanced cancer appraise and manage their uncertainty regarding their personal cancer risk.

methodsWe conducted a secondary analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with EYACs (age 18-35) who cared for a parent who died of advanced cancer (n = 33) < 5 years prior. The interviews were transcribed and thematically analyzed.

resultsSome EYACs described appraising their cancer risk uncertainty as an opportunity and were motivated to reduce their risks through behavior choices. Others appraised it as a danger and experienced anxiety, paranoia, and fatalism about their risk. Others described their parents' cancer as "just bad luck," believing it to be a random anomaly that could not impact their cancer risk and reported no changes in their appraisal of their cancer risk uncertainty.

conclusionsEYACs' opportunity and danger appraisals align with studies of high hereditary risk populations but reporting no change in cancer risk uncertainty is unique. The long-term health implications of appraising their parent's cancer as a random occurrence, disconnected from their personal risk, remain unknown. Future research should seek to help both bereaved and active EYACs better understand their cancer risk and manage their uncertainty.

Indexed as

BereavementCaregiversNeoplasmsParentsAdaptation, PsychologicalAdolescentAdultFemaleHumansInterviews as TopicMaleQualitative ResearchUncertaintyYoung Adultcancer riskcaregivingchronic uncertaintyemerging adultsfamilial cancerhereditary risklifespanoncologyuncertainty management theory

Identifiers

PMID40325614
PMCPMC12139470

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.