Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Jul 27, 2025; 17(7): 106026
Published online Jul 27, 2025. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i7.106026
Fear of cancer recurrence and influencing factors in elderly patients with gastric cancer undergoing laparoscopic radical surgery
Nai-Geng Zhu, Dong-Dong Zhao, Heng Cui, Sheng-Hong Sun
Nai-Geng Zhu, Dong-Dong Zhao, Heng Cui, Sheng-Hong Sun, Department of Medical, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230022, Anhui Province, China
Co-first authors: Nai-Geng Zhu and Dong-Dong Zhao.
Author contributions: Zhu NG contributed to the research design, data collection, statistical analysis, and manuscript drafting; Zhao DD, Cui H, and Sun SH participated in data analysis, interpretation, and critical revisions of the manuscript; All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University (No. PJ 2024-13-56).
Informed consent statement: All patients voluntarily signed informed consent forms.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—a checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-a checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author (Zhu NG) upon reasonable request.
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: Nai-Geng Zhu, MD, Doctor, Department of Medical, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, No. 218 Jixi Road, Hefei 230022, Anhui Province, China. zng2024001@163.com
Received: February 18, 2025
Revised: March 25, 2025
Accepted: May 23, 2025
Published online: July 27, 2025
Processing time: 155 Days and 3.4 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This study investigated the fear of cancer recurrence (FCR) in elderly patients with gastric cancer after laparoscopic radical surgery and identified key influencing factors. Among 264 patients, 63.64% exhibited clinically significant FCR. Protective factors included older age, higher psychological resilience, and social support, while risk factors were higher self-perceived burden, lower education, shorter disease duration, larger tumor diameter, and complications. A nomogram model was constructed to predict FCR risk, highlighting the importance of psychological and social support in improving patient quality of life.