heory of uncertainty in illness
Although uncertainty is not the same as fear of cancer recurrence, aspects of Mishel’s theory of uncertainty in illness may be relevant to understanding this fear.36,37 According to this theory, uncertainty is the inability to determine the meaning of illness-related events.36 It is generated when there is inconsistency, randomness, complexity, unpredictability and little information about the illness, its treatment, and related events including symptoms.36 Integrating uncertainty into one’s life and directing it in a desired direction such as reduced uncertainty is an essential task in adaption.37 Uncertainty about the possibility of cancer recurrence is similarly triggered by intrusive, unpredictable and random events.38 The difficulty with this causal explanation of fear of cancer recurrence is that some degree of uncertainty about recurrence likely exists for all cancer survivors, yet not all cancer survivors develop clinically significant levels of fear of recurrence.