Design |
A primary quantitative or qualitative research. We included only the primary research if a secondary analysis of the same set of data was available. |
Case report, protocols, reviews of the literature, and conference proceedings |
Publication types |
Peer-reviewed journal; the full article describing the research was available in English. |
Commentaries, books, book reviews, letters to the editor, theses, opinion papers, abstracts without full-text, or articles without an English full-text. |
Participants |
Participants must involve women with stage 0–3 breast cancer, ductal carcinoma in situ and lobular carcinoma in situ are considered stage 0 breast cancer; participants must have completed initial treatment (chemotherapy or surgery) but could be on hormone therapy |
The participants in the study had metastatic or recurrent cancer; participants were undergoing genetic testing or counseling, as this was considered to be a form of treatment. |
Study concepts |
Included Fear of Cancer Recurrence (FCR), Health Anxiety (HA), Worry or Uncertainty as a major concept. Fear of progression (FoP) is used interchangeably with FCR; therefore, we included the term FoP in our search and selection process. |
The concepts under study included fear of disfigurement, fear of having children, fear of returning to society, etc. |