Associated organisationsKing's College London · Stanford University · The Leanne Pero Foundation · University College LondonEurope PMC affiliations are not treated as award recipients or mapped locations.
Funding£3.3M
PeriodJul 2024 — Jul 2029
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
More than half of people now survive cancer, but many are left with persistent anxiety that stems from a disrupted sense of their own body’s signals. This matters because cancer can damage a person’s ability to sense internal bodily sensations—such as a racing heart or shallow breathing—a process called interoception. Normally, interoception helps us detect and regulate emotions. When it breaks down, anxiety can linger long after treatment ends. Current therapies often fail to address this root cause. The researchers will test three ways to repair interoception: training the brain to interpret bodily signals more precisely, changing how people think about those signals, and improving how clinicians talk with patients about body sensations. If successful, this work could transform treatment for the growing population of cancer survivors. It might lead to new digital therapies or clinical protocols that target interoception directly, offering relief where standard anxiety treatments fall short. The experiments, conducted in the UK and US, include partnerships with breast cancer survivors, adolescents and young adults with cancer, and people with rare inherited cancers, ensuring the findings apply across diverse groups.
View original technical description
There is unequivocal evidence that cancer causes anxiety. For some, anxiety resolves following successful cancer treatment. For others, anxiety persists. As cancer survival rates have just surpassed 50%, the mental health consequences of cancer survival are now a public health concern. Cancer disrupts a person’s relationship with their body and the sensing of internal bodily sensations – termed interoception. Yet, intact interoception is important for detecting, interpreting, and regulating emotion. Using experimental medicine methods, we will uncover how interoceptive mechanisms can be repaired to help resolve anxiety in cancer survivors. In WP1 we will target neurophysiological interoceptive mechanisms, training interoceptive precision to reduce anxiety. In WP2 we will probe psychological interoceptive mechanisms, investigating how changing interoceptive beliefs can ameliorate post-cancer anxiety. In WP3 we will examine socio-structural interoceptive mechanisms, defining how clinician-patient communication about interoception can lessen anxiety. Experiments will take place in the UK and US, integrating lived experience through partnerships with three diverse groups: breast cancer, adolescent and young adult cancers, and rare inherited cancers. Uncovering interoceptive mechanisms of anxiety resolution across different levels of explanation (neurobiological, psychological, socio-structural) in cancer survivors could transform clinical and digital health treatment options in this growing population.
Mental Health Award: Understanding anxiety and trauma
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