Comparative Analysis of the Current Status, Own Body Perception and Positive Experience From Diagnosed Breast Cancer

Abstract

Comparative analysis of the current status, own body perception and positive experience within a period of up to 1 year from diagnosing of women with breast cancer (N = 41; mean age 35.25) in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd stages of the disease progress, of Bulgarian origin, was made. Reliability and validity of the scales were described. They were analysed with respect to: 1) medical characteristics (partial or total surgery, surgical removal of lymph nodes, presence or absence of metastases in them), 2) classical therapies (chemotherapy, radiation therapy and hormonal therapy) administered or not and 3) application or not of alternative therapies (herbal medicine, physical load, administration of massage, lymph drainage, use of nutritional supplements, observance of diet). The results showed that the more therapies the persons surveyed were undergone the more unsatisfactory they assessed their current general status. The bigger the size of the surgery performed to remove the tumour the more positive idea of their own bodies they had. The more time after the surgical treatment passed the more the positive experience accumulated from the oncologic diagnosis grew.

Language: Bulgarian