Promoting Psychosocial Cancer Care on World Psycho-Oncology Day

The first-ever World Psycho-Oncology Day will be hosted on April 9, 2025, in honor of Jimmie Holland to bring awareness to psycho-oncology.

“Whatever your situation, I wish I could sit with you and talk about what’s been going on for you and how you’ve been coping, and help you find the kind of support that’s right for you. That’s the way I would like to do it. But since that’s impossible, I’ve tried through the chapters of this book to talk with you as I would if you were in my office and we were talking face-to-face about your illness or that of your loved one and about the problems you’ve had to deal with along the way.”¹

Jimmie C. Holland, MD, wrote those words in the book The Human Side of Cancer: Living With Hope, Coping With Uncertainty, which she published in September 2000. Powerful as it is, a sentiment such as that—compassion and understanding in the face of harmful psychological effects that cancer has on those who have it and their loved ones—was no longer as unique and rare as it was years earlier.

It all started decades back when Holland, a graduate of Baylor College of Medicine and a board-certified psychiatrist, questioned how cancer affected the mental well-being of patients with cancer and their loved ones. When she began her work, the worldwide consensus was that simply surviving cancer was enough and that no attention needed to be paid to the harmful effects that the disease might have caused.² Holland disagreed.

In 1977, Holland became the inaugural chief of the first-ever psychiatry service department in the world, and at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, she worked for decades creating, applying, and growing the field today known as psycho-oncology. She founded the American Psychosocial Oncology Society (APOS) in 1980, cofounded the International Psycho-Oncology Society (IPOS) in 1984, wrote the first-ever syllabus for psycho-oncology in 1984, and was the senior editor of the first textbook on the subject in 1989.

During her life, Holland altered the course of oncology by being one of the first to question and treat the mental effects of undergoing cancer therapy or watching someone go through treatment.

In a conversation with CancerNetwork®, Cristiane D. Bergerot, PhD, MS, a psychologist and the head of supportive care at Grupo Oncoclínicas in Brazil and a member of IPOS, said that Holland’s legacy “continues to shape how we care for our patients today, ensuring that emotional and psychological well-being are prioritized alongside physical health.”

In 2025, IPOS, the same society Holland helped build, deemed April 9 World Psycho-Oncology Day (WPOD), a day to spread awareness of the importance of addressing the emotional and psychological needs of those affected by cancer and to honor the late Holland.

The Importance of Psychosocial Oncology

Patients with cancer are 6 times more likely to have a psychological disability than a peer who does not have cancer, and estimates state that by 2026, more than 20 million people in the US will be considered cancer survivors.³ Psychosocial oncology was developed to combat that heightened risk of mental duress.

According to APOS, the field can be best described as “a cancer specialty that addresses the variety of psychological, behavioral, emotional, and social issues that arise for [patients with cancer] and their loved ones.”⁴

Anxiety, depression, trauma, distress, fatigue, sleep disturbance, fear of cancer recurrence, cognitive function, sexual function, and intimacy are all prominent aspects of life affected by psycho-oncology. Beyond the patient’s life, these factors can also influence the effect and assessment of cancer treatment.

The randomized EMOTICON trial (NCT02771028) examined the impact of emotional freedom techniques (EFTs), a mental or emotional version of acupressure, on cancer-related cognitive impairments in a group of patients who received EFT therapy immediately and a group who waited 8 weeks to receive EFT therapy.⁵

Results showed that at 8 weeks of trial intervention, 40.8% of patients in the immediate treatment group and 87.3% in the waiting list control group scored positively on the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire; at 16 weeks, the waiting list control group saw a reduction in scores similar to what was observed in the immediate treatment group at 8 weeks. These results showed that “subjective cognitive complaints impact [health-related quality of life] in [patients with] cancer.”

Over recent years, studies focusing on the psychosocial factors of cancer care have become less rare. Additionally, studies that do not place a focus on such factors have begun to implement end points or outcomes such as palliative care or quality of life, which are factored into standards of care and provide data for future research to improve the psycho-oncology landscape.

Bergerot, who spends many of her days working with patients and their loved ones to improve their experience going through cancer treatment, said that when “psychosocial care is integrated into cancer care, patients receive the emotional support, counseling, and coping strategies needed to navigate treatment more effectively.”

Currently, APOS endorses clinical guidelines that outline how to manage psychosocial factors during cancer treatment by the NCCN and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).^6,7 The NCCN offers 2 guidelines for patient distress during cancer treatment, and ASCO offers 1 guideline for managing anxiety and depression in adult survivors of breast cancer.

The Goals of WPOD

As stated earlier, the broadest goal of WPOD is to expand the reach and visibility of psychosocial oncology such that everyone can see the impact that care focused on the psychological and social aspects of treatment has on patients with cancer as well as their loved ones.

More specifically, however, the IPOS website lists 5 key goals for WPOD⁸:

1. Raising awareness: increasing the global recognition of psycho-oncology
2. Honoring Jimmie Holland: celebrating the legacy of Jimmie Holland
3. Engaging stakeholders: involving health care professionals, organizations, policy makers, and the public in promoting the importance of psycho-oncology
4. Promoting action: encouraging the integration of psycho-oncology into cancer care practices worldwide
5. Supporting fundraising efforts: providing opportunities to raise funds for IPOS and federation members to support psycho-oncology initiatives

“We aim to empower patients, caregivers, and health care professionals, fostering a future where psychosocial support is an integral part of oncology worldwide,” Bergerot added.

Avenues for Growth

Although the field of psycho-oncology is growing, it still has a great deal of potential that has yet to be realized. One of the most noted areas for growth relates to accessibility.

Telehealth systems, for example, create opportunities for everyone to receive access to psychosocial care regardless of language, physical condition, or means of transport.

Results from a study presented at the 2025 APOS Conference found that in adolescents and young adults with cancer, telehealth group intervention could be viable as an alternative over in-person intervention groups.⁹ The study collected quotes from several participants in the telehealth groups, and one stated, “I just really enjoyed the people in the group. I really enjoyed asking questions of others. I felt affirmed in the stories that I would tell, and the experiences I had felt validated. Regardless of how good or bad they were, it just felt nice to be able to share with a group of people who just got it, who understood it.”⁹

There is also a push to make psychosocial care less of an optional aspect of care by integrating it into more standards of care.

“Additionally, ongoing research into the effectiveness of various interventions, from digital solutions to community-based programs, will help refine best practices and reinforce the importance of psychology within health care systems,” Bergerot said.

Currently, conferences such as the APOS Conference, guidelines such as those from the NCCN and ASCO, and trials that evaluate the psychosocial state of patients with measures such as quality of life represent strides in expanding the reach of psycho-oncology. Even with much room to grow, the field has developed greatly from what Holland and her peers first started in the late 1970s.

References

1. Holland JC, Lewis S. The Human Side of Cancer: Living With Hope, Coping With Uncertainty. HarperCollins Publishers; 2001.
2. Holland JC. History of psycho-oncology: overcoming attitudinal and conceptual barriers. Psychosom Med. 2002;64(2):206-221. doi:10.1097/00006842-200203000-00004
3. Martinez MR, Pasha A. Prioritizing mental health research in cancer patients and survivors. AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(5):486-492. doi:10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.5.msoc2-1705
4. What is psychosocial oncology? American Psychosocial Oncology Society. Accessed April 2, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/5bvbrrkt
5. Tack L, Lefebvre T, Lycke M, et al. A randomised wait-list controlled trial to evaluate emotional freedom techniques for self-reported cancer-related cognitive impairment in cancer survivors (EMOTICON). EClinicalMedicine. 2021;39:101081. doi:10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.101081
6. Distress during cancer care. NCCN. 2024. Accessed April 2, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/ycxxvnmt
7. Andersen BL, Lacchetti C, Ashing K, et al. Management of anxiety and depression in adult survivors of cancer: ASCO guideline update. J Clin Oncol. 2023;41(18):3426-3453. doi:10.1200/JCO.23.00293
8. World Psycho-Oncology Day (WPOD). IPOS. Accessed April 2, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/43c9rr2c
9. Chan S, Patten J, Lau N. Telehealth group intervention for adolescents and young adults with cancer: a feasibility pilot study. Poster presented at: 2025 American Psychosocial Oncology Society Conference; March 5-7, 2025; Pittsburgh, PA. Poster W2.