Women with breast cancer are naturally exposed to strain related to diagnosis and treatment, and this influences their experienced quality of life (QoL). The present paper reports the effect, with regard to QoL aspects, of an art therapy intervention among 41 women undergoing radiotherapy treatment for breast cancer. The women were randomized to an intervention group with individual art therapy sessions for 1 h/week (n = 20), or to a control group (n = 21). The WHOQOL-BREF and EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire-BR23, were used for QoL assessment, and administrated on three measurement occasions, before the start of radiotherapy and 2 and 6 months later. The results indicate an overall improvement in QoL aspects among women in the intervention group. A significant increase in total health, total QoL, physical health and psychological health was observed in the art therapy group. A significant positive difference within the art therapy group was also seen, concerning future perspectives, body image and systemic therapy side effects. The present study provides strong support for the use of art therapy to improve QoL for women undergoing radiotherapy treatment for breast cancer.

This study shows that individual art therapy provided by a trained art therapist in a clinical setting can give beneficial support to women with primary breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy, as it can improve their coping resources.

The conclusion suggests that art therapy has a long-term effect on the crisis following the breast cancer and its consequences.

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Meeting men in a similar situation, sharing experiences of living with the disease, and feeling allied to each other were important to the men in our study. The conversational support group provided the patient with prostate cancer a forum where sharing was made possible.

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This is an accepted version of a paper published in Journal of Family Nursing. This paper has been peer-reviewed but does not include the final publisher proof-corrections or journal pagination.Citation for the published paper: Ringnér, A., Öster, I., Björk, M., Graneheim, U. (2013 AbstractThe aim of this study was to describe discursively constructed interactions between parents and health care professionals (HCPs) at a pediatric oncology ward. Field notes from 70 focused participant observations and 16 informal interviews with 25 HCPs interacting with 25 parents of children with cancer were analyzed using discursive psychology. Six dominant interpretative repertoires (flexible parts of discourses used in everyday interaction.) were found. Repertoires used by the HCPs were child-, parent-, or family-oriented, mirroring the primary focus of the interaction. Parents used a spokesperson repertoire to use their own expertise to talk on behalf of the child; an observer repertoire, in which they kept in the background and interfered only when needed; or a family member repertoire to position

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