open access: Receiving Palliative Treatment Moderates the Effect of Age and Gender on Demoralization in Patients with Cancer

PLOS ONE
  
"...... In conclusion, the present study shows that existential distress (or crisis)  in terms of demoralization is (a) frequent in cancer and (b) depends on a complex interaction of demographic and medical patient characteristics. One explanation to the latter is that existential challenges related to palliative treatment bring age- and gender-specific vulnerability and protective factors of existential distress into sharper relief. Moreover, these results provide a new perspective on the limited or inconsistent simple effects of palliative treatment, age, and gender on existential distress in previous research; future studies should consider that the effects of these variables depend on their sample-based distribution, which is to a large extent determined by the tumor site of the patients studied. Further improvement of knowledge about subgroup resources and vulnerabilities in the context of existential threat would provide valuable input for interventions focusing on the individual experience of existential challenges among cancer patients

Reference (to ovarian cancer = 1 citation)
 Arden-Close E, Gidron Y, Moss-Morris R (2008) Psychological distress and its correlates in ovarian cancer: a systematic review. Psychooncology 17 (11): 1061–1072.