Browsing by Author "Russell, Karleen Brooke"

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    Fear of Cancer Recurrence Experienced by Pediatric Survivors of Childhood Cancer
    (2024-03-14) Russell, Karleen Brooke; Tomfohr-Madsen, Lianne; Schulte, Fiona; von Ranson, Kristin; Guilcher, Greg; McDonough, Meghan; Galica, Jacqueline
    Introduction: Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is a common and sometimes debilitating concern among survivors of cancer. While much is known about FCR experienced by adults, research exploring FCR experienced by children and adolescents has only begun to emerge. Importantly, given the dynamic development of cognitive and social factors throughout childhood, pediatric survivors may experience FCR differently than adults. Method: A scoping review was undertaken to evaluate the existing literature on pediatric FCR. Additionally, given the absence of available tools to measure pediatric FCR, the psychometric properties of an adult FCR measure, the Cancer Worry Scale, was evaluated in a pediatric sample. Results: The scoping review identified 19 studies that met inclusion criteria. FCR was explored as a primary aim in only six. The prevalence of FCR in identified samples ranged from 43% to 90%. FCR was positively associated with somatic symptoms and negatively associated with quality of life and emotional functioning. Evaluation of the Cancer Worry Scale demonstrated acceptable psychometric properties for use with youth but pointed towards the utility of developing a new FCR measure intended specifically for use with youth. Conclusion: FCR is a prevalent and important concern for this population. Additional research is needed to better characterize and understand pediatric FCR.
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    Sleep Disturbances and Fatigue in Survivors of Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and their Siblings
    (2019-08-19) Russell, Karleen Brooke; Tomfohr-Madsen, Lianne M.; Schulte, Fiona S. M.; Noel, Melanie; Brooks, Brian L.; Laing, Catherine M.
    Sleep disturbances and fatigue have been identified by patients with cancer as common and distressing. Conflicting evidence about the prevalence of these outcomes, however, exists for survivors of childhood cancers. Additionally, little is known about how the cancer trajectory might impact survivor siblings’ sleep and fatigue. The current study compared sleep and fatigue in survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) (2-7 years off therapy) and their siblings to healthy control sibling dyads. We hypothesized that survivors would have less total sleep time (TST), greater wake after sleep onset (WASO), poorer sleep efficiency (SE), and higher ratings of fatigue than controls. Participants (survivors, n=45; survivor siblings, n=27; controls, n=45; control siblings, n=41; 58% male) aged 8-18 (m=11.64, SD=2.62) completed the PedsQL Multidimensional Fatigue Scale, a 7-day sleep diary, and 7-consecutive days of actigraphy. Parents (n=90) completed the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire for each of their children. No between-group differences were found on measures of fatigue, sleep diaries, or actigraphy. Parents reported that survivor siblings had significantly poorer sleep habits than survivors or controls. For survivors, greater time off treatment and younger age at diagnosis were significantly related to poorer outcomes via actigraphy on TST, WASO, and SE, as well as sleep-onset latency (SOL) via sleep diaries. This research suggests that poorer sleep in later survivorship from childhood cancer may be related to late-effects, which may account for variability in these findings in the broader literature, and that siblings of survivors of childhood cancer may be at risk for sleep problems.