Women's perceptions of their experiences with breast cancer: are their needs being addressed?

Breast cancer is the major cause of female deaths in Western Europe. In the United Kingdom, one woman in 14 is liable to develop this disease. An increasing emphasis on recognizing survival from cancer and remission periods of up to 20 years for breast cancer has important implications for health-care professionals. Care and support should effectively meet patients' needs to enable them to cope with the impact of a breast cancer diagnosis. This paper provides an overview of selected literature on women's experiences of breast cancer. It places particular emphasis on their perceptions of the information they received about the disease and its treatment, and their perceptions of the support available to them. The overview illustrates the problem of inadequacies in the information and support currently available to women with breast cancer. The necessity for a more comprehensive and sensitive assessment of these women's needs is emphasized and suggestions are made for the direction of future research in this area.