PDF icon PDF herunterladen
Open Access
CC BY 4.0 · Indian J Med Paediatr Oncol
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1809376
Original Article

Perspectives of Breast Cancer Survivors with Recurrence: A Qualitative Study from a Tertiary Cancer Center in Northern Kerala, India

Neethu Ambali Parambil 
1   Department of Preventive and Community Oncology, Malabar Cancer Center [Post Graduate Institute of Oncology Sciences and Research], Thalassery, Kerala, India
,
Srinivasan Kannan 
2   Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum, Kerala, India
› Institutsangaben
Funding None.
› Weitere Informationen
Auch verfügbar aufeRef
  Lizenzen und Reprints
Preview

Abstract

Introduction

Being diagnosed with breast cancer in itself is a trauma to a woman. Disease recurrence in a survivor is a separate entity with issues and challenges that differ from the initial diagnosis. Recurrence gives a message of incurability to the survivor.

Objective

There is a dearth of qualitative studies from Kerala about the experiences of breast cancer survivors with recurrence. This study was undertaken to have a better understanding of the perspectives of these women.

Materials and Methods

In-depth interviews were conducted among 10 survivors registered in the Hospital-Based Cancer Registry of 2016 in a Tertiary Cancer Center who had a recurrence in 2022, using an interview schedule. Interview transcripts were subjected to thematic analysis.

Results

The Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research were used for the study reporting. The themes that emerged were: (1) diagnosis-related challenges, (2) work-related challenges, (3) financial challenges, and (4) treatment and cure-related perspectives.

Conclusion

Survivors with disease recurrence had an array of multifaceted experiences that must be addressed.

Keywords

breast neoplasm - cancer survivors - qualitative research - cancer registry - recurrence

Authors' Contributions

The manuscript has been read and approved by all the authors, and the requirements for authorship have been met and are provided in contributor's form. Each author believes that the manuscript represents honest work. Study conceptualization and Methodology, Data analysis, Review and editing, and Final approval of manuscript have been done by S.K. Study conceptualization and methodology, Data collection, Manuscript writing, Review and Editing and Final approval of manuscript have been done by N.A.P.


Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study followed the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The approval for the study was obtained from the institution where the author undertook her PhD study, and from the institution where the study was conducted (1617/IRB-IEC/13/MCC/26–05–2021/2 and SCT/IEC/1711/AUGUST/2021).




Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
04. Juni 2025

© 2025. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, permitting unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction so long as the original work is properly cited. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Pvt. Ltd.
A-12, 2nd Floor, Sector 2, Noida-201301 UP, India