Study Design and Participants
primary breast cancer, breast cancer
BREAST, BREAST CANCER
The study design was a parallel RCT, and the participants were females with breast cancer who were psychologically vulnerable. The trial protocol (Between August 2017 and October 2019, all patients at the Department of Breast Surgery in Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark, were recruited and evaluated for eligibility by 3 trained project nurses (H.D. and B.M.). The inclusion criteria were new (prior to treatment) diagnosis of primary breast cancer; breast cancer surgery; aged 18 years or older; Danish speaking; physically able to attend rehabilitation; able to provide written informed consent; and moderate to high psychological distress, with a score of 7 or higher on the well-validated instrument Distress Thermometer (“Please circle the number [0-10] that best describes how much distress you have been experiencing in the last week including today”), as established previously in Danish patients with breast cancer.Patients were involved in the development of the REBECCA intervention through a previous longitudinal study on symptoms and need for support during breast cancer treatment