The knowledge, expectations, fears that a patient has about the oncological disease and treatment can affect the quality of life of patients (Colagiuri et al., 2013; Whitford, 2012).

The aim was to reveal the relationship between well-being of patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy and their illness and treatment representation.

110 patients undergoing chemotherapy in Medsi Clinical Hospital filled Chemotherapy Attitudes Questionnaire (Zinchenko et al., 2020), Life Satisfaction Scale (Diener et al., 1985), Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (Diener et al., 2009), Quality of Life Questionary C30 (Aaronson N. K. et al., 1994), Illness Perception Questionnaire (Moss-Morris et al., 2002), Self-Regulation Questionnaire in the Rehabilitation Process (Kovyazina M. et al, 2019), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (Zigmond, Snaith, 1983).

Correlation analysis revealed that patients with severe difficulties in physical functioning had a lower level of life satisfaction (R = -0.23, p <.05) and quality of life (R = -0.35, p <.001), perceived disease as long-term (R = 0.34; p <0.001), cyclical (R = 0.33; p <0.001) and carrying significant negative consequences for life (R = 0.55; p <0.001), also these patients were characterized by anxiety about health during treatment (R = 0.37; p <0.001).

Perception of illness duration, personal control, emotional representations, self-efficacy, confidence in the effectiveness of treatment can predict the level of satisfaction with life of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy (R2 increased from 0.05 to 0.37, p<0.001).

Health anxiety, illness duration, personal control, self-efficacy could be targets for interventions in patients undergoing chemotherapy.

No significant relationships.

Psychological work with cognitive beliefs were shown to be beneficial for patients with somatoform disorders and unexplained somatic complaints (Liu et al., 2019). There is still a question of whether these results are specific or common for different kind of interventions including psychoanalytic psychotherapy (Kaplan, 2014).

The aim was to reveal dynamics of illness perception after group analysis psychotherapy comparing to psychoeducation in patients with somatoform disorders.

100 patients with somatoform disorders were randomized to psychoeducation intervention (48 patients; 15 males and 33 females) and to the group analysis psychotherapy (52 patients; 15 males and 37 females). Before and after treatment they filled Screening for somatoforms symptoms (Rief, Hiller, 2003) and Illness Perception Questionnaire - Revised (Moss-Morris et al., 2002).

2 (Groups) × 2 (Time: Before / After) ANOVA with repeated measures revealed major effect of time with both groups demonstrated equal decrease in somatoform symptoms during treatment (F=101.42, p<.01, η²=.52). Patients from both groups after treatment appraised their illnesses as having shorter duration without cycles, less severe consequences on their lives, reported increase in treatment control, understanding of their illness and decrease in emotional reactions (F=7.13-30.62, p<.01, η²=.07-.24). In group analysis condition only patients demonstrated increased beliefs that psychological and risk factors could impact their illness (interaction: F=4.58-7.24, p<.05, η²=.05-.07).

Patients with somatoform disorders almost equally benefitted from both psychoeducation and group analysis but group analysis psychotherapy led to better awareness of psychological and risk factors of their illness.

Retinoblastoma is the most common primary intraocular tumor of childhood with >95% survival rates in the US. Traditional therapy for retinoblastoma often included enucleation (removal of the eye). While much is known about the visual, physical, and cognitive ramifications of enucleation, data are lacking about survivors' perception of how this treatment impacts overall quality of life.

Qualitative analysis of an open-ended response describing how much the removal of an eye had affected retinoblastoma survivors' lives and in what ways in free text, narrative form.

Four hundred and four retinoblastoma survivors who had undergone enucleation (bilateral disease = 214; 52% female; mean age = 44, SD = 11) completed the survey. Survivors reported physical problems (n = 205, 50.7%), intrapersonal problems (n = 77, 19.1%), social and relational problems (n = 98, 24.3%), and affective problems (n = 34, 8.4%) at a mean of 42 years after diagnosis. Three key themes emerged from survivors' responses; specifically, they (1) continue to report physical and intrapersonal struggles with appearance and related self-consciousness due to appearance; (2) have multiple social and relational problems, with teasing and bullying being prominent problems; and (3) reported utilization of active coping strategies, including developing more acceptance and learning compensatory skills around activities of daily living.

This study suggests that adult retinoblastoma survivors treated with enucleation continue to struggle with a unique set of psychosocial problems. Future interventions can be designed to teach survivors more active coping skills (e.g., for appearance-related issues, vision-related issues, and teasing/bullying) to optimize survivors' long-term quality of life.