Impact of a Group Intervention on Breast Cancer Patient's Adjustment and Emotion Regulation at the End of Treatment

Background: The end of treatment is for cancer patients the beginning of a critical rehabilitation period including numerous physical, emotional, professional and cognitive challenges. Specific interventions adapted to this post-treatment period need thus to be designed. Interventions such as group cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis have been shown to be effective. However, moderate effect sizes, no comprehensive description of the treatment interventions and assessments relying only on self-report measures warrant further investigation. This study aims to assess, in breast cancer patients at the end of treatment, the impact of a group intervention combining cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis versus a group intervention on patient's adjustment and emotion self-regulation.

Design: This is a two-armed, longitudinal, randomized controlled trial. Breast cancer patients finishing their radiation therapy treatment will be randomized to either an immediate group intervention combining cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis or a group intervention. Patients will be assessed at three time points during the first year following the end of treatment: at 1 (T1), 6 (T2) and 12 (T3) months after the end of treatment. Patients' adjustment will be assessed through questionnaires. Patient emotion self-regulation ability will be assessed through their ability to respond both subjectively (self-reported emotional state) and objectively (heart rate) to two emotion self-regulation tasks.

Discussion: It is hypothesized that a group intervention combining cognitive-behavioral therapy and hypnosis will be more effective than a group intervention. Results of this study will contribute to improving post-treatment care for breast cancer patients.