van Deuren, Sylvia, van Dulmen-den Broeder, Eline, Boonstra, Amilie et al. · Journal of adolescent and young adult oncology · 2021 · DOI
This study compared how fatigue affects three groups: people who had cancer as children, people with ME/CFS, and people who had cancer as adults. Researchers looked at thinking patterns and behaviors that might keep fatigue going, like how people cope, sleep habits, and beliefs about their illness. They found many similarities between the groups, but some differences in how people explained their fatigue and how much support they had.
This study provides important evidence that ME/CFS and cancer-related fatigue share similar underlying cognitive-behavioral mechanisms, suggesting that therapeutic approaches like CBT developed for one condition may be adapted for the other. Understanding these overlaps and differences helps clinicians better target treatments and validates that ME/CFS fatigue operates through similar psychological and behavioral pathways as other severe fatigue conditions.
This study cannot establish causation—it identifies associations between cognitive-behavioral factors and fatigue severity, but does not prove these factors cause fatigue. The small sample size for CCS (n=34) and the retrospective design limit generalizability. Additionally, the study does not test whether CBT interventions are equally effective across all three groups or prove that group-specific differences require different treatment protocols.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
van Deuren, Sylvia, van Dulmen-den Broeder, Eline, Boonstra, Amilie, Gielissen, Marieke, Blijlevens, Nicole, Loonen, Jacqueline, et al. (2021). Fatigue-Related Cognitive-Behavioral Factors in Survivors of Childhood Cancer: Comparison with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Survivors of Adult-Onset Cancer.. Journal of adolescent and young adult oncology. https://doi.org/10.1089/jayao.2020.0094
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-van-deuren-2021-fatigue-related,
author = {van Deuren, Sylvia and van Dulmen-den Broeder, Eline and Boonstra, Amilie and Gielissen, Marieke and Blijlevens, Nicole and Loonen, Jacqueline and Knoop, Hans},
title = {Fatigue-Related Cognitive-Behavioral Factors in Survivors of Childhood Cancer: Comparison with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Survivors of Adult-Onset Cancer.},
journal = {Journal of adolescent and young adult oncology},
year = {2021},
doi = {10.1089/jayao.2020.0094},
note = {PubMed: 32857640},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/van-deuren-2021-fatigue-related},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-27. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/van-deuren-2021-fatigue-related
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