Unmet Needs of Breast Cancer Patients Relative to Survival Duration

Abstract

PurposeThe present study aims to evaluate the prevalence of unmet needs among breast cancer survivors, to assess the relationships between unmet needs and depression and quality of life, and to explore the extent to which unmet needs of breast cancer patients relate to the time elapsed since surgery.Materials and MethodsAmong 1,250 eligible patients who participated in the study, 1,084 cases (86.7%) were used for analysis. Clinicopathological and social parameters were reviewed and the Supportive Care Needs Survey, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast cancer instrument, and Beck Depression Inventory were administered. The frequency of unmet needs, the association between unmet needs and depression and/or quality of life (QOL) and the impact of the time elapsed since surgery on the patients' unmet needs were analyzed.ResultsThe highest levels of unmet needs were found to be in the health system and information domain. Patients with a survival duration of less than 1 year since surgery showed significantly higher unmet needs in all need domains except the sexuality domain (p<0.001) than participants in the other groups. Patients with a survival duration of 1-3 years also experienced significantly higher psychological and information needs than long-term survivors (>5 years). In addition, unmet needs were significantly associated with depression (p<0.001) and QOL (p<0.001).ConclusionThe present study demonstrated that long-term breast cancer survivors had a significantly lower level of unmet needs than patients with survival duration of less than 3 years after surgery and patients with survival duration of less than 1 year since surgery suffered the greatest unmet needs. QOL might be enhanced if interventions are made for specific unmet needs of each patient group.

Psychosocial Problems in Women with Gynaecological Cancer - A Cross Sectional Survey

“…Few other studies reported the same to be 40% in both the areas. 9,10,11,12 .The severity of psychosocial problems had statistically significant association with age, 2, 13, 14, advanced stages of illness, 14,15,16 duration of cancer, 14,7,17 and type of treatment received 18,17,11,19,20 which was in accordance with several other studies.…”

Prevalence of Depression in Breast Cancer Survivors: a Systematic Review of Observational Studies

“…While depression was found to be highest at diagnosis (Odle, 2011), depression during survivorship has not been studied adequately. During the follow-up care, survivors' psychological needs were often neglected (Park and Hwang, 2012). A main theme of depression among breast cancer survivors was the fear of breast cancer recurrence and metastasis (Pan et al, 2010).…”

Factores relacionados con las diferentes estrategias de afrontamiento al cáncer de mama en pacientes de recién diagnóstico

“…Pocos son los países que tienen dentro de sus sistemas de salud un programa psicooncológico bien estructurado que le permita a estas pacientes tener una visión más adaptativa de su enfermedad (26,27) . A pesar de que las sociedades han cambiado, las investigaciones relacionadas con los factores psicosociales (28) y familiares (29,30) que influyen en la capacidad de afrontamiento y el incremento de la calidad de vida del paciente y su familia no se han actualizado (21,22) . Por lo que el objetivo del presente estudio es identificar cual es el sentimiento más frecuente que presentan las pacientes con cáncer de mama al recibir el diagnós-tico de mama, cuáles son las estrategias de afrontamiento más utilizadas y los factores que pueden estar relacionados con dichas estrategias.…”