PURPOSE A diagnosis of breast cancer or melanoma is a traumatic life event that patients have to face. However, their locus-of-control (LOC) beliefs and coping strategies as well as the associations with health-related quality of life (HRQoL) changes over time are still not well known and rarely compared by cancer site. METHODS The objective of this longitudinal study was to assess the association of LOC (Cancer Locus-of-Control Scale) and coping (Brief Cope) changes, with change in HRQoL (EORTC QLQ-C30) over time in newly diagnosed breast cancer and melanoma patients at 1, 6, 12, and 24 month post-diagnosis. Mixed models were used to compare LOC and coping longitudinal changes as well as their associations with HRQoL changes in early-stage breast cancer and melanoma patients. RESULTS Overall, 215 breast cancer and 78 melanoma patients participated in the study. At baseline, HRQoL levels were often higher for breast cancer compared to melanoma patients. For breast cancer and melanoma patients, negative coping strategies and perceived control over the course of illness were negatively and positively associated with HRQoL changes, respectively. For breast cancer patients only, emotional coping and internal causal attribution were negatively associated with HRQoL changes. For both cancer sites, living with a partner correlated with worse HRQoL. CONCLUSIONS Understanding coping strategies and LOC beliefs used by patients soon after their cancer diagnosis and over the course of illness can help identifying psychological and supportive care to modify maladaptive thoughts and beliefs and promote more adaptive behaviors to ultimately improve patients' well-being and HRQoL.

中文翻译：

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乳腺癌或黑色素瘤患者应对策略，控制源和健康相关生活质量之间的纵向关联。

目的诊断乳腺癌或黑素瘤是患者必须面对的创伤性生活事件。但是，他们的控制源（LOC）信念和应对策略以及与健康相关的生活质量（HRQoL）随时间变化的关联仍不为人所知，并且很少在癌症部位进行比较。方法这项纵向研究的目的是评估在新诊断的乳腺癌和黑色素瘤中，随着时间的推移，随着时间的变化，LOC（癌症控制量表）和应对（简短应对）变化之间的关系。诊断后1、6、12和24个月的患者。混合模型用于比较早期乳腺癌和黑色素瘤患者的LOC和应对纵向变化以及它们与HRQoL变化的关联。结果总体而言，215名乳腺癌和78名黑色素瘤患者参加了该研究。基线时，与黑素瘤患者相比，乳腺癌的HRQoL水平通常更高。对于乳腺癌和黑色素瘤患者，消极的应对策略和对病程的知觉控制分别与HRQoL变化呈负相关和正相关。仅对于乳腺癌患者，情绪应对和内部因果归因与HRQoL变化呈负相关。对于两个癌症位点，与伴侣生活在一起均与较差的HRQoL相关。