The Integration of Emotional, Physiologic, and Communication Responses to Medical Oncology Surveillance Appointments During Breast Cancer Survivorship.

Only 27 women were studied, all recurrence-free and at least two years after treatment, so the findings may not apply to men, newly treated patients, or women with different survivorship concerns. One post-visit immune sample was not suitable for testing, and missing self-report values were replaced with the mean. Data were collected only immediately before the visit and the next morning, so the study could not establish baseline immune values, when immune changes began, or when they returned to usual levels. The study was exploratory, used significance at .10, and immune markers have normal variability. Associations are tentative. Participants had long-standing provider relationships and adequate veins, and women taking anti-inflammatory medications were excluded, which may limit generalizability.

Do not read the post-visit rise in natural killer cells in 70% of women as proof that surveillance visits improve immunity. The sample was small, immune changes were inconsistent, and the study did not test an intervention.