Solanki SL, Maurya I. Comprehending and adapting to fear of cancer recurrence in geriatric gastric cancer: A call for prehabilitation pathway. World J Gastrointest Surg 2025; 17(9): 110195 [DOI: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i9.110195]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Sohan Lal Solanki, MD, Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain, Tata Memorial Hospital, Homi Bhabha National Institute, E Borges Marg, Mumbai 400012, Maharashtra, India. me_sohans@yahoo.co.in
Research Domain of This Article
Anesthesiology
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Surg. Sep 27, 2025; 17(9): 110195 Published online Sep 27, 2025. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i9.110195
Comprehending and adapting to fear of cancer recurrence in geriatric gastric cancer: A call for prehabilitation pathway
Sohan Lal Solanki, Indubala Maurya
Sohan Lal Solanki, Department of Anaesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain, Tata Memorial Hospital, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai 400012, Maharashtra, India
Indubala Maurya, Department of Anaesthesiology, Kalyan Singh Super Specialty Cancer Institute, Lucknow 226002, Uttar Pradesh, India
Author contributions: Solanki SL and Maurya I contributed to writing the manuscript; Solanki SL contributed to idea and concept; Maurya I contributed to editing and proofreading of the manuscript. Both authors approved the final version manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sohan Lal Solanki, MD, Professor, Department of Anaesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain, Tata Memorial Hospital, Homi Bhabha National Institute, E Borges Marg, Mumbai 400012, Maharashtra, India. me_sohans@yahoo.co.in
Received: June 3, 2025 Revised: June 23, 2025 Accepted: August 6, 2025 Published online: September 27, 2025 Processing time: 116 Days and 18.9 Hours
Abstract
Fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) is a psychological worry among cancer survivors, particularly among the elderly who are at risk of developing physiological and psychological vulnerabilities. In a cross-sectional survey of 264 elderly gastric cancer (GC) patients by Zhu et al, a high rate (63.64%) of clinically significant FCR was observed following laparoscopic radical gastrectomy. Factors affecting the high rate of FCR were a high level of self-perceived burden, lower education level, large tumour diameter, short duration of disease, and postoperative complications. They also established a validated nomogram model to predict the risk of FCR in this patient population. In this letter, we want to emphasize that, in addition to integrating psychological screening and focused interventions into the routine postoperative care of elderly GC patients, prehabilitation interventions before surgery, including psychological support, may provide a proactive response to mitigate FCR and improve long-term outcomes.
Core Tip: Fear of cancer recurrence is highly prevalent (63.64%) among post-surgery elderly gastric cancer patients. Key risk factors include younger age, low education, larger tumors, complications, poor resilience, low support, and high perceived burden. A predictive nomogram can help identify high-risk patients. Integrating psychological support and prehabilitation before surgery can reduce fear of cancer recurrence and improve outcomes.
