Optimistic, realistic, and pessimistic illness perceptions; quality of life; and survival among 2457 cancer survivors: the population-based PROFILES registry.

Optimistic IPs are associated with better HRQOL and survival, even if they may appear to be unrealistic with respect to cancer survivors' prognosis. Survivors with pessimistic IPs appear to have the worst outcomes. Therefore, efforts are needed to provide better support to patients with pessimistic IPs to improve their outcomes. Cancer 2018;124:3609-17. © The Authors. Cancer published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Cancer Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.