Impact of support group participation in women with gynecologic cancer.

Abstract

252 Background: Unlike breast cancer support group literature, there is no data in women with gynecologic cancer who have different perspectives about their disease and therapy. We have a well-established, grass root level support group unique to women with gynecologic cancers that meets monthly. Our goal was to investigate perceived benefits of support group participation. Methods: We developed an original questionnaire to evaluate the CSRA Gynecologic Oncology Support Group (CGOSG) participant’s perceived effects of attending the group on their side effects and disease status which was distributed to patients attending CGOSG meetings. 47 surveys were collected for analysis; Wilcox rank sum test was used as appropriate. Patients were also administered the validated FACT-G questionnaire addressing physical well-being (PWB), emotional well-being (EWB), social well-being (SWB), and functional well-being (FWB). 33 surveys were collected, and t-tests were conducted using FACIT SAS scoring program. Results: In the original questionnaire, the 2 top reasons that patients attended CGOSG were physician driven (28%) and to meet other women with the same diagnosis (26%). The most concerning physical side effect from their cancer or therapy was fatigue (21%), and patients with more than 5 visits reported that CGOSG participation improved their fatigue with a median score of 7.5 ± 4 out of 10. The most concerning emotional side effect was fear of recurrence (26%), and patients reported the CGOSG improved their fear of recurrence with a median score of 9 ± 2 out of 10. Patients with more than one visit, not on treatment reported a higher quality of life score (p = 0.001) and perceived a positive impact on cancer therapy (p = 0.02) compared to patients on treatment. Among patients who took the validated FACT-G questionnaire, those on active treatment had a lower PWB than patients not on therapy (p = 0.01). The mean subscale scores were PWB 21.99, SWB 24.26, EWB 20.08, FWB 20.92 with patients faring best in social well-being. Conclusions: This is a first of a kind attempt to understand the impact of a well-organized support group on women with gynecological cancers which indicates that these women struggle with fear of recurrence but are able to find some solace.