Background: The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy -Breast (FACT-B) scale is widely used to measure health-related quality of life in cancer patients. The aim of the present study is to validate the FACT-B in a sample of Iranian women with breast cancer. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 300 women selected through non-random convenient sampling procedure from oncology hospitals and clinics in Kermanshah and Shiraz cities. They were asked to fill in the Persian versions of the FACT-B scale, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life EORTC QLQ30. Confirmatory factorial analysis of the methods, concurrent validity and discriminant, and Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency were applied. Results: Internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha was 0.63 to 0.93 for the subscales and 0.92 for the total scale. Significant correlations between FACT-B and other measures indicate that this scale had concurrent and discriminant validity. The values of fit indices were satisfactory. Conclusions: The Persian version of the FACT-B scale is valid and reliable and, therefore, the scale can be used in research and clinical settings to assess health-related quality of life in Iranian patients with breast cancer.

Mental adjustment to cancer is known as a psychological, physical, and psychological health variable among cancer patients. The present study examines the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer scale (Mini-MAC) in a sample of Iranian adults who suffer from cancer. The sample consists of 320 cancer patients selected through non-random convenient sampling procedure from the hospitals and clinics in the cities of Kermanshah and Shiraz in Iran, using the Mini-MAC scale. One hundred of these patients also completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale. Statistical methods used to analyze the data included confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis, discriminate validity, and Cronbach alpha coefficients for internal consistency. Factor analysis confirms five factors in the Mini-MAC. The values of fit indices are within the acceptable range. Significant correlations between the Mini-MAC and other measures also show that this scale has discriminate validity. Alpha coefficients for the subscales are Helplessness/Hopelessness,.94; Cognitive Avoidance.76; Anxious Preoccupation,.90; Fatalism,.77; Fighting Spirit.80; and total scale.84, respectively. The results confirm the five-factor structure of the Persian Mini-MAC scale and also prove that it is a reliable and valid scale. They show that this scale has sufficient power to measure different aspects of mental adjustment in patients with cancer.

Background: Health-related quality of life in cancer patients has been interested to researchers in the domain of health in recent decades. Mental adjustment to cancer is a concept known as an important indicator of life quality, well-being and health of cancer patients. The aim of this paper is to examine the relation between mental adjustment to cancer and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among some women with breast cancer. Methods: 100 patients were non-randomly selected from hospitals and oncology clinics in Kermanshah and Shiraz cities, Iran. These patients completed the functional assessment of cancer treatment-breast (FACT-B) in order to measure HRQoL and mini-mental adjustment to cancer questionnaire (Mini-MAC). Data were analyzed by using correlation and regression. Results:The results show that helplessness/hopelessness (58%), fighting spirit (40%), fatalism (33%) and preoccupation anxiety (18%) explain the variance of HRQoL. Conclusions: According to the findings, there is no relation between cognitive avoidance styles and HRQoL, and it can be concluded that coping styles helplessness/hopelessness and fighting spirit are the best predictors of HRQoL in patients with breast cancer. Consequently, the evaluation of the coping styles and emergency interventions in order to enhance coping with illness in cancer patients, decrease the sense of helplessness/hopelessness and anxiety are recommended, which in turn are accompanied by increasing HRQoL.

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