In the intervention arm, most patients (N = 107) received an intervention conducted by the psychiatric liaison nurse; the interventions, effectuated as single interventions or combined, consisted of "facilitating emotional expression" (73%), "giving practical advice" (71%), "promoting life narrative" (48%) and "providing psycho-educational interventions" (44%). For about half of the patients in the intervention group (N = 76) also other types of interventions were proposed, such as referral to a liaison psychiatrist (N = 36), psychiatric advice to the treating physician (N = 32) or interdisciplinary case conferences (N = 8). A minority of patients (N=13) did not receive any treatment (due to no indication for a psycho-social intervention or patients lacking motivation) (N=13). The liaison nurses, who effectuated the intervention and organized psychiatric referral, psychiatric advice to the treating physician and interdisciplinary case conferences, were supervised weekly for an hour by a senior psychiatrist (FS) or an experienced psychiatric liaison nurse (YD).