a Psychology , University of Derby , Derby , UK.
b NIHR Imperial Patient Safety Translational Research Centre , Imperial College London, St Mary's Hospital , London , UK.
Int J Qual Stud Health Well-being. 2017 Dec;12(1):1364603. doi: 10.1080/17482631.2017.1364603.
Worldwide there are nearly 1.1 million new cases of gynaecological cancer annually. In England, uterine, ovarian and cervical cancers comprize the third most common type of new cancer in women. Research with gynaecological cancer patients within 6 months of diagnosis is rare, as is data collection that is roughly contemporaneous with treatment. Our aim was to explore the experiences of women who were, at study entry, within 6 weeks of surgery or were undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy.
An interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of data from 16 women in five focus groups was conducted in the UK, exploring women's experiences of being diagnosed with and treated for gynaecological cancer.
Participants conceptualized their experiences temporally, from the shock of diagnosis, through their cancer treatment, to thinking about recovery. They tried to make sense of diagnosis, even with treatment being complete. In the context of the Self-Regulation Model, these women were struggling to interpret a changing and multi-faceted illness identity, and attempting to return to pre-illness levels of health.
This study adds to this under-studied time period in cancer survivorship. The results suggest that survivors' goals may change from returning to pre-illness status to reformulating goals as survival time increases.
全球每年有近 110 万例妇科癌症新发病例。在英国，子宫癌、卵巢癌和宫颈癌构成了女性中第三常见的新癌症类型。在诊断后 6 个月内对妇科癌症患者进行研究很少见，与治疗大致同时进行的数据收集也很少见。我们的目的是探讨在研究开始时处于手术后 6 周内或正在接受化疗或放疗的女性的经历。
在英国，对来自五个焦点小组的 16 名女性进行了解释性现象学分析（IPA），探讨了女性在被诊断出患有妇科癌症和接受治疗时的经历。
参与者从诊断的震惊、癌症治疗到思考恢复，从时间上对他们的经历进行了概念化。即使治疗已经完成，他们也试图理解诊断。在自我调节模型的背景下，这些女性正在努力理解不断变化和多方面的疾病身份，并试图恢复到疾病前的健康水平。
这项研究增加了对癌症生存研究中这个研究不足的时间段的了解。结果表明，随着生存时间的延长，幸存者的目标可能会从恢复到疾病前的状态转变为重新制定目标。
