Risking ‘Safety’: Breast Cancer, Prognosis, and the Strategic Enterprise of Life

Ehlers, Nadine

doi:10.1007/s10912-014-9288-2

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 20 publications

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“…38 In other breast cancer research, this "at risk" state has been characterized as "not quite sick but also not quite well" (p. 86). 39 CRC screening has, likewise, created new categories of risk. For example, findings of polyps require more active and more frequent surveillance, and label people as higher risk.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Complicating “the good result”: narratives of colorectal cancer screening when cancer is not found

Hunleth

Gallo

Steinmetz

et al. 2019

Journal of Psychosocial Oncology

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In this paper, we analyze narratives from a Photovoice project on colorectal cancer screening that was carried out with people who had undergone screening and were found to not have cancer. Three groups, totaling eighteen participants, took part in the project, meeting multiple times over the course of approximately 10 weeks, and discussing photos they took about colorectal cancer screening. A common way in which the participants conveyed their screening experiences was through reflection on their own or other people's illnesses. Our findings highlight the multiple meanings of receiving a 'good' or noncancerous screening result after undergoing cancer screening. Such findings suggest that framing noncancerous results only in terms of relief or other positive emotions may ignore the realities people and their families face and their remaining concerns. This paper has broader implications for policies to reduce cancer disparities as well as public health and patient-provider communication about screening. [Colorectal < Cancer Type; Qualitative < Research Methods; Photovoice; Narrative research; Health care disparities] Colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, particularly through colonoscopy, is highly effective in reducing mortality. 1 A CRC diagnosis now has a promising 5-year survival rate of 90 percent when it is detected early, and polyps can be removed prior to becoming malignant. However, only 39 percent of people diagnosed with CRC are diagnosed at this early stage, when the cancer remains localized, 2 and there are substantial disparities in CRC incidence and mortality along lines of socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, and in medically under-served geographic areas. 3 Because differences in CRC screening uptake contribute to CRC disparities, 4 barriers to CRC screening have been a prime area of study for health researchers. 5-9 To better understand screening uptake, we carried out a community-based participatory research project on CRC screening with people from medically-underserved areas to hear their screening narratives. We focus on narratives because narratives are integral to how people "make sense of" 10 and "work through their experiences." 11 Narratives of health or illness offer insight into "local moral worlds," in the neighborhoods, families, and communities in which people carry out

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%