This special interest group brings together and represents the interests of IPOS members with a special interest in Fear of Cancer Recurrence.
Below is a list of the volunteers sitting on the committee:
Sophie Lebel (Chair 2017 – 2019) – Canada
Dr. Sophie Lebel is an Associate Professor at the University of Ottawa in the School of Psychology. She is also a Clinical Psychologist offering services to individuals coping with cancer and their caregivers. To date she has published 48 papers and has given over 140 conference presentations and workshops. Her research focus is on cancer survivorship, especially fear of cancer recurrence, stigma, sexuality, dyadic adjustment, and fatigue. As part of her work on fear of cancer recurrence, she has validated the English version of the Fear of Cancer Recurrence Inventory, examined the impact of fear of cancer recurrence in young women, and its costs to the medical system. She created a group cognitive-existential intervention to address this fear that was pilot-tested in women with breast or ovarian cancer and later adapted to an individual version. She is currently finishing a randomized controlled trial of this intervention with women with gynecological or breast cancer. Some of her current work involves distinguishing between clinical vs. normal fear of cancer recurrence.
Allan (Ben) Smith (Deputy Chair 2017 – 2019) – Australia
Dr Ben Smith is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Oncology Education and Research Translation (CONCERT), Ingham Institute and UNSW Australia. Previously Ben jointly coordinated the ConquerFear study, which found that a novel therapist-delivered intervention (ConquerFear) was effective in reducing fear of cancer recurrence. Ben is leading the development of an online version of ConquerFear to make evidence-based treatment for fear of cancer recurrence more accessible. Ben is also helping advance international research on fear of cancer recurrence through his role as deputy chair of the International Psycho-Oncology Society Fear of Cancer Recurrence Special Interest Group.
Nadine Kasparian (Secretary 2017 – 2019) – Australia
Nadine Kasparian is an Associate Professor in Medicine at UNSW Sydney, and Head of Medical Psychology at the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network Cardiac Service. She currently holds two prestigious fellowships – a National Heart Foundation of Australia Future Leader Fellowship, and a Harkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy and Practice from the Commonwealth Fund.
Nadine has over 100 published outputs, including articles in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, JAMA Internal Medicine and Genetics in Medicine. She has secured over $20 million in competitive grant funding, delivered over 150 conference presentations, and is the recipient of 26 research awards. She is an executive member of 10 national or international committees, founder and chair of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand’s Mental Health Care Working Group, and inaugural co-chair of the SPHERE Mindgardens Clinical Academic Group focused on reducing the burden of mental illness in children and young people. Nadine is also a practicing clinician and from September 2018, she will spend 12 months working at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Nina Moeller Tauber (Early Career Representative 2017 – 2019) – Denmark
Nina Moeller Tauber, Msc. in Psychology, is PhD fellow at the Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University. Nina is currently translating an Australian therapist-delivered intervention for fear of cancer recurrence (ConquerFear) into Danish and developing a group delivered version of the treatment, which will be evaluated in a randomised controlled trial. As a part of FORwards, Nina is also coordinating a systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect of psychological intervention on fear of cancer recurrence in collaboration with other members of this special interest group.