Time to Let Go of the Illusion that Psychotherapy Extends the Survival of Cancer Patients: Reply to Kraemer, Kuchler, and Spiegel (2009)

Replies to comments from Kraemer, Kuchler, and Spiegel on the authors original article Psychotherapy and survival in cancer: The conflict between hope and evidence. The authors recently reviewed evidence related to the notion that psychotherapy extends survival in cancer patients (J. C. Coyne, M. Stefanek, & S. C. Palmer, 2007). The authors found that no study to date, including several designed and powered to test this hypothesis, can be reasonably interpreted as evidence that cancer patients live longer as a result of receiving psychotherapy. The authors concluded that the evidence against psychotherapy as a life-prolonging intervention in cancer is sufficiently robust to discontinue funding studies in this area. H. C. Kraemer, T. Kuchler, and D. Spiegel (2009) critiqued the authors' review. The authors respond directly to numerous misrepresentations made by Kraemer et al. More importantly, the authors provide readers with an accurate overview of the main issues being debated and the reasons for their conclusions. (Contains 1 footnote.)