Mindfulness for Lung Cancer Patients and Partners

Receiving a diagnosis of cancer is a major cause of distress and is usually characterized by anxiety and depression. Compared to patients with other cancer diagnoses, patients with lung cancer report higher levels of distress, which probably can be explained by the poor prognosis. At the time of diagnosis, lung cancer is often locally or systematically advanced and 5-year survival is only 15 percent.

Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) is a recently developed psychological intervention that appears to be promising in terms of reducing psychological distress in cancer patients. It consists of 8 weekly group sessions in which formal and informal mindfulness practices are practiced. As most of the earlier studies have been conducted in patients with breast cancer, it is important to examine the effectiveness of this approach in patients with other types of cancer, such as lung cancer. Furthermore, a diagnosis of cancer is not only highly distressing for the patient but also for the partner and family.

In this study, the (cost)effectiveness of MBSR compared with treatment as usual will be investigated in 110 patients with lung cancer and 110 partners.

Inclusion criteria

• Cytologically or histologically proven non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer.
• Patients can participate after lung cancer diagnosis, from start of treatment or after treatment.
• Sufficient understanding of Dutch language.

Exclusion criteria

• Former participation in MBSR or MBCT course.
• Current psychological treatment by psychologist or psychiatrist.
• Cognitive impairments hampering participation in MBSR and completion of questionnaires.
• Physical impairments prohibiting participation in MBSR training.