Prospective study looking at expectations and perceptions of women attending a robust gynecologic oncology support group (SG).

334 Background: In contrast to breast cancer, there is limited data looking at the effects of SG on patient perceptions and expectations in gynecologic cancers. At our institution, we have a well-establish, grass-roots level SG that is unique to women with gynecologic cancers that meets monthly. Our goal was to explore the perceived benefits of SG participation on patient physical and emotional side effects, and quality of life as patients cope with diagnosis and therapy. Methods: An original questionnaire was developed to evaluate SG participant’s expectations of the group and if they felt they were being met as well as perceived effects of attending SG on their side effects. Validated FACT-G surveys evaluated physical well-being (PWB), emotional well-being (EWB), social well-being (SWB) and functional well-being (FWB) of those who did and did not attend SG. Surveys were prospectively collected from 2015 to 2023. Descriptive statistics were reported as means with standard deviation. Due to non-parametric distribution, other statistical analysis was performed by Kruskal-Wallis test. Results: 86 original SG questionnaires were completed. 24.4% were Black, 39.5% had at least an Associate degree and 51.1% had annual income < $50,000. Majority of patients had ovarian cancer (54.7%) and diagnosed at advanced stage (65.4%) with 59.3% on active treatment. 48.8% had attended >5 meetings. The top reasons for attending SG were at physician request (25%), to meet others with same diagnosis (23%) and learn more about their cancer (18%). Those who attended >5 meetings felt that SG improved their cancer education (p=0.002), provided support (p=0.001) and provided bonding and companionship (p=0.02) more than those who attended 1-5 meetings. There was no significant difference found between physical and emotional side effects when stratified by meetings (p>0.05). 140 FACT-G surveys were completed by 71 who did not attend SG and 69 who attended at least one meeting. There was no difference in total FACT-G, PWB or SWB scores between the two groups (p=0.649, p=0.729 and p=0.589 respectively). However, those who attended SG had a higher FWB than those who did not (p=0.009). Conclusions: SG is overall meeting the expectations of participants. Patients who attended reported significantly improved FWB. With increasing treatment options and survivorship, more research in this area is essential to understanding how to best support our patients.[Table: see text]