Dear Editor,IntroductionFear of cancer recurrence (FCR), defined as the fear orworry that cancer could return or progress in the sameplace or another part of the body [1], is a commonand debilitating problem among cancer survivors. A re-cent systematic review found that across different cancersites and assessment strategies, the following on aver-age: 73% of cancer survivors report some degree ofFCR (range=39–97%); 49% report moderate to highFCR (range=22–87%); and 7% report high FCR(range=0–15%) [2]. FCR is stable over time and hasbeen shown to impact negatively on quality of life(QOL), psychological adjustment, emotional distressand anxiety, ability to establish future plans and carerQOL [2]. High FCR has also been associated withgreater medical service usage and costs [2]. Despitethe high prevalence, morbidity and potential cost ofFCR, survivors commonly report strong unmet needsfor help managing FCR [2]. This suggests many cancerservices are currently providing inadequate care in thisarea. Indeed, clinicians in psycho-oncology report diffi-culties dealing with high FCR [3]. There is a clear needfor interventions specifically targeting FCR, but veryfew have been developed and evaluated to date [4–6].This paper reports on the pilot testing of a novel, theo-retically based intervention for FCR.MethodsInterventionThe manualised intervention (Conquer Fear) aims to re-duce the impact of FCR and is based on the common-sense model (CSM) of illness [7], self-regulatory execu-tive function (S-REF) model [8] and Relational FrameTheory (RFT) [9]. Key intervention objectives includethe following: (a) teaching strategies for controllingworry and excessive threat monitoring (S-REF), (b)modifying unhelpful beliefs about worry (S-REF), (c)developing appropriate monitoring and screeningbehaviours (CSM), (d) providing information aboutfollow-up care and empirically supported behaviouralchange (e.g. weight loss and exercise) to reduce riskof recurrence (CSM), (e) addressing cancer-related exis-tential changes (RFT), and (f) promoting values-basedgoal-setting (RFT). The intervention comprises five60–90 min, individual face-to-face sessions with atrained psychologist/psychiatrist (therapist). Home-basedpractice and reading (≈2 h/week) is encouraged to con-solidate skills. See Table 1 for an overview of sessioncontent. More details are provided in Butow et al. [10].Study designThe feasibility, acceptability and likely efficacy ofConquer Fear were evaluated in a small longitudinalsingle-arm pilot study approved by relevant local ethicscommittees.