Latina breast cancer survivors' lived experiences: Diagnosis, treatment, and beyond.

Abstract

Latina breast cancer survivors are not benefiting from advances in psychosocial interventions. Despite their greater breast cancer burden, there is a dearth of information about this population. This qualitative study examined the experiences of 18 immigrant Latina breast cancer survivors along the survivorship continuum, from diagnosis to long-term survivorship. The authors conducted separate focus groups with women in the acute, reentry, and long-term survivorship stages. Through grounded theory analysis, the authors uncovered 5 themes of experience: perceptions of psychological well-being, impact of diagnosis, impact of treatment, need for social support, and development of new attitudes. Some themes were applicable across all survivorship stages, whereas others were more salient at a particular stage. Within themes, the authors identified experiences reported in the general literature (i.e., the debilitating effect of chemotherapy) and distinct cultural experiences (i.e., fear that a cancer diagnosis leads to certain death). Results suggest that treatments tailored for each survivorship stage are more likely to be effective than generic interventions. These findings have the potential to lessen health disparities in utilization of psychosocial treatments by Latina breast cancer survivors.

Breast Cancer risk factors and screening practices Among Women Attending Family Health Centers in Cairo Governorate

“…Almost the same results was found by Ismail et al, [25] where, more than half of the sample aged from 15 to less than 21 years at first full term pregnancy, while 40.2% aged 21 to less than 26 years and only 2.2% aged 26 years and more at their first pregnancy among Egyptian females. This finding contradicted with the study done by Buki et al [30] where women having their first child after 30 Results revealed that, almost one third of the study sample had their menarche at the age from 13 to less than 14 years, more than one quarter had their menarche at the age of 14 years, and less than one quarter had their menarche at the age of 12 years to less than 13 years. As for menopause, about one quarter of the study sample passed through menopause at the age of 55 to 56 years, almost one third had their menopause by the age of 49 year to less than 51 years, slightly more than one third had their menopause by the age of 51 years to less than 53 mean of 52.44±2.42years.…”

Breast Cancer Treatment Decision-Making: Are We Asking Too Much of Patients?

“…Trust-in-physician scores were in fact lowest among women reporting "not enough" responsibility for decision-making, many of whom were Black. In contrast, Hispanic/Latina women may prefer for their physicians to make most of the decisions about treatment, [24][25][26] and may be more prone to feeling they have "too much" responsibility in the face of complex decisions.…”

Adjuvant Hormonal Therapy Use Among Women with Ductal Carcinoma In Situ

“…Prior research indicates that Latina women in particular perceive the physician-patient relationship as important and may rely heavily on physicians to make treatment decisions. 28,29 As a result, the lower likelihood of discussing adjuvant HT with a physician observed for Latina Spanish speakers may have important implications for treatment initiation and adherence within this group. Although there were no significant differences in the use of adjuvant HT according to ethnicity/language in our sample, Latina Spanish speakers in our sample who did report use of adjuvant HT were more likely than white women to discontinue use.…”