Culturally tailored program supports emotional health of Latina breast cancer survivors

A recent randomized controlled trial assessed the benefits of a group-based intervention that fosters communication and coping skills in a culturally tailored way for Latina breast cancer survivors and their caregivers. The results are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

For the trial, investigators randomized 136 Latina breast cancer survivors and 136 caregivers from Washington, D.C., New York, NY, and San Jose, CA, to participate in an 8-session coping and communication intervention that reflects the cultural preferences and values of Latina/o people (70 pairs) or to receive usual care support services through community-based organizations (66 pairs). The intervention was developed by Nueva Vida, Inc., a community-based organization in Washington D.C., and the study was funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

Among the patient-caregiver pairs in the intervention group, 71.4% attended at least 5 of the 8 sessions, demonstrating high engagement, with 82% of participants still in the program at 6 months. There were clinically significant improvements in breast cancer survivors' reports of anxiety and fatigue at 6 months after the intervention compared with reports by breast cancer survivors who used usual community resources; however, after adjusting for potentially influencing factors, the results were not statistically significant.

Our close collaboration with 4 exceptional community-based organizations for this trial led to our success with recruitment and retention of Latina breast cancer survivors and their caregivers. Future research can seek to replicate our intervention and evaluate the intervention with other groups of breast cancer survivors and their caregivers."

Kristi D. Graves, PhD, senior author of Georgetown University