“Making sense” of your cancer may improve your health

While most women who survive breast cancer find a way to deal with the emotional and psychological aspects of having the disease and put the experience behind them, about one in ten will continue to struggle for many years to understand why they developed cancer, Seattle researchers report in the current issue of the journal Women & Health.

These women, the researchers write, repeatedly find themselves trying to make sense of their cancer experience, wondering about such questions as  “why did this happen to me” years after being diagnosed and treated.

The study, which was based on a survey of 636 women who had survived breast cancer for 2, 5 or ten years, found that women who had not been able to “make sense” of their cancer were more likely to report to have a poorer health quality of life than did women who had found some satisfying explanation for their experience.

An explanation as simple as “it’s God’s will” can be enough for some people, says Robyn Andersen, Ph.D, a health psychologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and lead author of the study.

“Even accepting that ‘bad things happen to good people’ allows you to walk away from an experience and say ‘I’m still a good person’,” Andersen said.

The ultimate goal of the research is to see if there are ways to identify women who are likley to have difficulty coming to terms with having cancer so that they can be helped through counseling, support groups and other interventions.  

“Ideally, we would find them early on and give them help coping,” Andersen said, which, in turn, may help improve the quality of their lives overall.

To learn more:

• Read the article “Frequent Search for Sense by Long-Term Breast Cancer Survivors Associated with Reduced HRQOL” in Women & Health (fee or subscription required).
• The Seattle Cancer Care Alliance’s “Life After Cancer” webpage. 
• Visit Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s Survivorship Program
• Visit the American Cancer Society’s website, which offers resources for “Managing Your Cancer Experience” and links to “Support Programs & Services” that can direct you to national and local resources.

Tags: Breast Cancer, Cancer Survivors

Category: Cancer, Psychology & Psychiatry, Women's Health