Existential distress is common among individuals affected by cancer and can significantly impact psychological wellbeing, treatment engagement, quality of life, and adjustment to illness. While existential concerns may encompass a range of experiences, including loss of meaning, uncertainty, and concerns about identity, a central yet often overlooked contributor is death anxiety; that is, the fear and distress associated with one's own death or the process of dying.
This presentation will examine the role of death anxiety in the cancer experience and discuss its relevance across the disease trajectory. Drawing on emerging empirical evidence, it will explore how death anxiety may contribute to a broad range of psychological presentations, including anxiety, depression, and health-related fears.
Practical approaches to the assessment of death anxiety and existential distress will be reviewed, alongside discussion of evidence-based therapeutic approaches that may assist patients struggling with mortality-related concerns. These will include cognitive behavioural and existentially informed interventions, as well as broader principles for discussing mortality-related fears within routine cancer care.
By conceptualising death anxiety as a potentially modifiable driver of existential distress, this presentation aims to provide a summary of strategies for recognising, assessing, and responding to an important yet frequently under-addressed aspect of psychological adjustment to cancer.