Problems Experienced by Ovarian Cancer Survivors During Treatment.

The sample was small at each time point, so the study could not test all predictors together in one model. Participants entered the study at different points after diagnosis, and the late posttreatment group did not overlap with the earlier time points, which makes comparisons across time harder to interpret. The study recruited women after surgery, so it had no information about their problems before diagnosis. Data were collected between 2003 and 2006, although the authors state that first-line treatment standards have not changed substantially since then. The problem scales had reliability estimates ranging from poor to good in this study. The sample was mostly White, so findings may not apply to women of other racial backgrounds. The study excluded women who could not provide consent or complete questionnaires because of psychiatric or psychological abnormality, and it excluded non-English speakers. Open-ended questions did not specifically probe marital or relationship problems, and coping methods were reported spontaneously rather than measured systematically.

Research support was listed as National Institutes of Health extramural and U.S. Government, Non-P.H.S. No author conflict-of-interest declaration is included in the article text.

Do not read the decrease in physical and pain scores as proof that a treatment works. This was a descriptive study of women at different points in their cancer care, with no control group and no intervention being tested.