Lung cancer patients’ illness perceptions: Prognostic for psychological and physical health trajectories.

Advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is associated with the highest burden of mental and physical symptoms. Across illnesses, patients' subjective illness beliefs (i.e., illness perceptions [IPs]) correlate with psychological and physical health status. Despite this, IPs in NSCLC patients are understudied. To address this gap, previous research identified three profiles characterizing IPs of newly diagnosed NSCLC patients: "coping" (those more positive perceptions of NSCLC); "coping but concerned" (similar positive perceptions but high concern); and "struggling" (uniformly negative perceptions; Valentine et al., 2022). This extension seeks to determine if IPs are predictive. Would patients' psychological and physical health trajectories differ by IP profile?