Quality of survival as defined by physical and psychosocial criteria was found to be remarkably similar among 134 breast cancer patients and 260 controls. Most of the cases had been diagnosed 5 or more years prior to this study. Physical disability was reported by 19% of the cases and 16% of the controls. The slight excess of disability among the cases was related to surgical treatment. There was no evidence of increased psycho‐social disability among the cases. The principal effect of breast cancer was to triple mortality over a 28‐month period. In both cases and controls, subsequent mortality was associated with reports of disability and ill health on the questionnaire but not with psycho‐social variables, with the possible exception of a pessimistic view of the future.

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