Thewes B, Butow P, Girgis A, Pendlebury S
Department of Medical Oncology, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia.
Psychooncology. 2004 Mar;13(3):177-89. doi: 10.1002/pon.710.
Due to improvements in medical treatment and survival following breast cancer, researchers have turned their attention to investigating the needs of breast cancer survivors. There is disagreement about the extent to which survivors continue to experience psychological morbidity after treatment ends. Whilst the majority of women adjust well to breast cancer, some may have continued psychosocial needs. Available research suggests that younger pre-menopausal women are at increased risk of psychological morbidity following breast cancer. The present study aimed to gather preliminary qualitative data on the psychosocial needs of breast cancer survivors and to identify the shared and unique needs of younger versus older survivors. A qualitative methodology was chosen as this was a relatively unexplored area of enquiry. Patients treated for early-stage breast cancer who had completed their hospital-based treatment 6-24 months prior to participation were recruited. Sampling was discontinued when informational redundancy was achieved. Eighteen telephone interviews were conducted. A wide variety of on-going psychosocial and information needs were reported by breast cancer survivors including support needs, psychological needs, practical needs, physical needs and information needs. Younger women reported more needs than their older counterparts. Several needs reported by younger women were directly related to being of younger age or pre-menopausal at the time of diagnosis. Clinical implications are discussed.
由于乳腺癌治疗和生存率的提高，研究人员已将注意力转向调查乳腺癌幸存者的需求。对于幸存者在治疗结束后心理疾病持续存在的程度，存在不同意见。虽然大多数女性能很好地适应乳腺癌，但有些女性可能仍有持续的心理社会需求。现有研究表明，绝经前的年轻女性在患乳腺癌后出现心理疾病的风险增加。本研究旨在收集关于乳腺癌幸存者心理社会需求的初步定性数据，并确定年轻幸存者与年长幸存者的共同需求和独特需求。选择定性方法是因为这是一个相对未被探索的研究领域。招募了在参与研究前6至24个月已完成基于医院治疗的早期乳腺癌患者。当达到信息冗余时停止抽样。进行了18次电话访谈。乳腺癌幸存者报告了各种各样持续存在的心理社会和信息需求，包括支持需求、心理需求、实际需求、身体需求和信息需求。年轻女性报告的需求比年长女性更多。年轻女性报告的一些需求直接与她们在诊断时年龄较小或处于绝经前有关。文中讨论了临床意义。
