Objective: To explore the role of personality traits in moderating the relation between COVID‐19 risk perception and treatment adherence, and between risk perception and psychosocial distress in patients diagnosed with cancer.Methods: An online survey (n = 1281) was conducted worldwide in seven countries (Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey). Inclusion criteria were to be 18 years of age or older, have received a cancer diagnosis, and be in treatment or follow‐up. A few moderated regression models were performed with both personality traits and Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology super‐spectra as moderators.Results: Detachment, negative affectivity, psychoticism and all the super‐spectra significantly moderated the relation between coronavirus risk perception and psychosocial distress, after the adjusting effect of confidence in safeguards. Only negative affectivity moderated the association between coronavirus risk perception and treatment adherence.Conclusions: Personality traits may foster the understanding of how a patient might adjust to cancer treatment and, more generically, to highly stressful events such as the COVID‐19 pandemic. Further research is needed to confirm the results in different cancer stages and types.

Key points: A high number of mental health cancer care providers from low–middle‐income countries (LMICs) reported that they are working during the COVID‐19 as both clinicians and researchers Less than 50% of providers surveyed were taking care of patients with comorbid cancer and COVID‐19. They also reported that this pandemic had drastically impacted the number of patients seen per week Due to COVID‐19, mental health cancer care providers from LMICs had to incorporate technology into their practice (with and without the support from an institution). Telephone, videoconferencing, text messages, and telehealth have been great resources by which to offer psychosocial support to their patients Notably, despite the fact that mental health cancer care providers from LMICs have been able to offer eHealth interventions during the pandemic, they are experiencing notable challenges in delivering this type of intervention, often due to limited technology resources in their countries The vast majority of mental health cancer providers from LMICs would like to be trained to offer eHealth interventions and to develop this type of supportive care resource in their countries