The fear that cancer will progress or worsen is one of the most common concerns among people living with this disease. Identifying and measuring this concern is key to providing appropriate psychological care and improving patients’ quality of life. Now, a study led by the University of Barcelona in collaboration with the Rovira i Virgili University and CEU San Pablo University, has validated for the first time in the Spanish population, the Spanish version of the Assessment of Survivor Concerns (ASC) questionnaire, a tool designed specifically to assess cancer and health-related concerns. The study has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Regarding the results, Caterina Calderón, author of the study and researcher at the UB’s Faculty of Psychology, points out that "higher scores on concern are significantly associated with greater anxiety, depression, physical symptoms and poorer quality of life." This confirms that worry about cancer is not an isolated phenomenon, but has a direct impact on patients’ emotional and functional well-being. The study also shows that women and younger people tend to show higher levels of concern, while no significant differences have been detected based on the type of cancer. According to the research team, this pattern is consistent with the results of previous research conducted in other countries.
The study involved 1,052 patients with advanced cancer from 15 Spanish hospitals between February 2020 and September 2023. During visits to oncology departments, they completed several questionnaires to assess their concerns about cancer, as well as indicators of anxiety, depression, psychological distress, symptoms and quality of life. The results show that the Spanish version of the questionnaire provides reliable and valid scores for clinical use.
The ASC scale consists of only six questions that explore aspects such as fear of cancer progression, concern about future diagnostic tests, fear of death, or concern about one’s own health and that of one’s children. The answers provide an overall score that reflects the patient’s level of concern.
The results of the study indicate that the questionnaire measures a single dimension of cancer-related concern and that it works consistently across different patient groups, regardless of gender, age or cancer type. This means that the tool assesses the same concept in all groups and allows reliable comparisons between people with different profiles.
The authors also highlight the briefness and ease of use of the questionnaire, features that make it a particularly useful tool for routine clinical practice. "Its application can help healthcare professionals to detect patients with high levels of concern at an early stage and to better target psychological and support interventions," says Urbano Lorenzo, a researcher at the Department of Psychology at Rovira i Virgili University.
References
Calderón, Caterina; Lorenzo-Seva, Urbano; Ferrando, Pere J. et al. «Measurement properties of the Spanish version of assessment of survivor concerns in cancer patients». Scientific Reports, 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-32396-x.
