SCIENTIFIC REPORT 2004 - Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

C A N C E R P R E V E N T I O N A N D C O N T R O L P R O G R A M
• Findings suggest that maintaining a positive
attitude may relate to psychological well-being
over the year post surgery.
An additional study revealed that there were
complex relationships between benefit-finding
and coping over the one-year period following
surgery for early stage breast cancer.
• During the early period of dealing with the diagnosis
of and treatment for breast cancer, for
example, benefit-finding is associated with
greater positive reframing, religious coping, selfdistraction,
substance use, examining emotions,
and seeking less social support. By mid-treatment
(three months later), active coping and
religious coping were important correlates of
benefit-finding, while after treatment completion
(six months), higher benefit-finding was
related to greater active coping, examining emotions,
seeking social support, religious coping,
and reduced use of acceptance coping. However,
by one year after surgery, greater benefitfinding
was associated with using positive
reframing and planning coping strategies.
• Thus, effective coping strategies early on may be
those that help women modulate their emotions
and maintain hope. Later on, the most
effective strategies appear to be those that help
them move on and plan for the future.
• The research outcome suggests that finding
benefits in cancer may be differentially related
to the coping strategies women employ at different
points during the treatment trajectory,
which may have important implications for tailoring
psychosocial interventions across medical
treatment.
DAVID J. LEE, PH.D.
Associate Professor of Epidemiology and
Public Health
DESCRIPTION OF RESEARCH
Dr. Lee is a chronic disease epidemiologist
with a long-standing interest in the prevalence
of, and morbidities associated with, sensory-related
diseases and impairments. In the past
two years, he has published findings that examined
cancer mortality risk in community-residing
adults with visual impairment and glaucoma. Previous
research has suggested an association between
cancer risk and eye disease. Dr. Lee and his
colleagues found, however, that detection bias, in
part, might be responsible for this association.
Their findings were of sufficient merit to warrant
publication of an accompanying editorial by a
leading ophthalmic epidemiologist.
Dr. Lee entered the field of tobacco control
research in 2000, where he now devotes 60 percent
of his research efforts. Since this career shift,
he has served as co-investigator of the Florida
Youth Cohort Study that is following a sample of
Florida adolescents in order to monitor changes
in tobacco-related attitudes/beliefs and behaviors.
He also is the lead author on three papers reporting
results from this work. Dr. Lee also is the
principal investigator of two Flight Attendant
Medical Research Institute (FAMRI)-funded
grants to study the influence of second-hand
smoke on the health of adolescents. Using
UM/Sylvester developmental funds, Dr. Lee
fielded a school-based pilot study in 2004 that
examined second-hand smoke exposure and cancer
risk factors in an ethnically diverse group of
middle-school students. Findings from this study
will be used to develop an intervention designed
to reduce cancer risk factors in this population.
It will be submitted for possible funding to the
NCI in February 2005.
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UM/Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center Scientific Report 2004