Cancer nursing
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Body image, decision making, and breast cancer treatment.
This study was performed to describe women's satisfaction with body image before and 8 weeks after the surgical treatment of breast cancer compared with women without breast cancer. Additional aims were to describe women's perceived participation in decisions regarding choice of surgical procedure to treat their breast cancer, and postoperative satisfaction with their breast cancer treatment, as well as to explore factors influencing women's decisions regarding choice of surgical procedure. The design was prospective with a descriptive, comparative design. ⋯ These data suggest that satisfaction with body image is disturbed by surgery for breast cancer despite active participation in decisions regarding selection of treatment or postoperative satisfaction with type of surgical treatment received. These outcomes suggest that women need assistance in adjusting to alterations in body image from nurses and the need for research to describe effective interventions. Future studies of body image and breast cancer treatment should be conducted with larger samples, and at different points after surgery to determine the effects of mastectomy and breast-conserving surgery on the body image of breast cancer survivors over time.