Li JH, Zhou Q. Psychological distress in thyroid cancer patients: Influencing factors and intervention strategies. World J Clin Oncol 2025; 16(7): 106249 [DOI: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i7.106249]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Qian Zhou, MD, Doctor, Department of Thyroid Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 3966 Section 2, South Tianfu Avenue, Tianfu New District, Chengdu 610213, Sichuan Province, China. qianzhoud3@sina.com
Research Domain of This Article
Psychology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
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 Clin Oncol. Jul 24, 2025; 16(7): 106249 Published online Jul 24, 2025. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v16.i7.106249
Psychological distress in thyroid cancer patients: Influencing factors and intervention strategies
Ju-Hua Li, Qian Zhou
Ju-Hua Li, Qian Zhou, Department of Thyroid Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610213, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Li JH and Zhou Q designed the research study; Li JH performed the research, analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript; Zhou Q provided guidance and contributed to the final version of the manuscript; All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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: Qian Zhou, MD, Doctor, Department of Thyroid Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 3966 Section 2, South Tianfu Avenue, Tianfu New District, Chengdu 610213, Sichuan Province, China. qianzhoud3@sina.com
Received: February 21, 2025 Revised: April 2, 2025 Accepted: June 13, 2025 Published online: July 24, 2025 Processing time: 152 Days and 19 Hours
Abstract
Thyroid cancer is a common endocrine malignancy with a rising incidence. Patients often suffer from mental pain due to concerns about recurrence, treatment-related side-effect, and body image changes. Demographic factors like age, gender, physiological factors such as somatic symptoms and disease stage, cognitive-regulatory factors including negative and positive thinking, and social factors like work, economy, education level, and social support all influence their mental state. Existing interventions, including nursing, psychological, and traditional Chinese medicine-based methods, have some benefits but face limitations like short-term effectiveness and lack of standardization. Future research should focus on creating better-defined, long-term, and widely applicable intervention programs and explore positive psychology-based approaches to improve patients' mental well-being and quality of life.
Core Tip: Thyroid cancer patients often experience mental pain. This review sums up its influencing factors like demographics, physiology, and social aspects. Current interventions have flaws. Future research should focus on better-designed, long-term interventions and positive psychology-based methods to improve patients’ mental health.
