ObjectiveTo explore the correlation between the level of hope and coping style in patients with tumor recurrence. MethodsPatients with tumor recurrence admitted to West China Hospital between March 2014 and March 2015 were enrolled as the research subjects. Questionnaire survey was used to collect general information of patients and their level of hope and coping style. ResultsFour hundred and thirty-one patients were enrolled in the study. The score of hope in patients with tumor recurrence was 32.88±5.83. Out of 431 patients, 27 (6.26%) had low level of hope, 277 (64.27%) medium level of hope and 127 (29.47%) high level of hope. Multivariate analysis showed that the coping styles and income could enhance the level of hope, whereas being female, poor marital status, low educational level and long term of complete remission could suppress the level of hope in patients with tumor recurrence. Various coping styles were adopted by patients to cope with the tumor recurrence. Amongst all coping styles, optimism was adopted most frequently by patients, which had the highest score 2.94±0.44. The other coping styles adopted by patients ranked from high to low were conservation 2.88±0.53, self-reliance 2.75±0.56, confrontation 2.73±0.55, fatalism 2.45±0.66, support 2.41±0.52, escape 2.15±0.42 and emotion 2.12±0.59, respectively. The level of hope had a positive correlation with the overall score of coping styles (r=0.112), as well as optimism (r=0.170), confrontation (r=0.166) and self-reliance (r=0.210) (P < 0.05). However, the study showed that the level of hope had no correlation with emotion, escape, conservation, support and fatalism. ConclusionsMost of the patients with tumor recurrence have medium and high level of hope. The coping styles of optimism, confrontation and self-reliance can enhance the level of hope in patients with tumor recurrence. Patients should be encouraged and guided by medical staff to adopt the above-mentioned coping styles to enhance the level of hope, through which to improve the quality of life of the patients with tumor recurrence.