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CC BY 4.0 · Brazilian Journal of Oncology 2026; 22: s00451811729
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1811729
Original Article
Clinical Oncology

Association between Spirituality, Religiosity, and Breast Cancer Treatment

Authors

  • Natalia Tomaz Pires 

    1   Department of Breast Cancer, A.C. Camargo Cancer Center, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

  • Marina Sonagli 

    1   Department of Breast Cancer, A.C. Camargo Cancer Center, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

  • Silvana Soares dos Santos 

    1   Department of Breast Cancer, A.C. Camargo Cancer Center, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

  • Cristina Haas Tarabay 

    2   Department of Psychology, A.C. Camargo Cancer Center, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

  • Solange Moraes Sanches 

    3   Department of Clinical Oncology, A.C. Camargo Cancer Center, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

  • Guilherme Rocha Melo Gondim 

    4   Department of Radiotherapy, A.C. Camargo Cancer Center, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

  • Fabiana Baroni Alves Makdissi 

    1   Department of Breast Cancer, A.C. Camargo Cancer Center, São Paulo, SP, Brazil

Funding The authors declare that they did not receive funding from agencies in the public, private, or non-profit sectors to conduct the present study.
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Abstract

To assess the degree of spirituality and religiosity in patients with breast cancer and its relationship with treatment, the Spiritual/Religious Coping (SRCOPE) scale and World Health Organization's Quality of Life Instrument – Spirituality, Religion and Personal Beliefs Module (WHOQOL-SRPB) questionnaires were applied to 49 patients. For 91.9% of the patients, there was a contribution of faith to their well-being and the connection with a spiritual being helped them tolerate the stress. There were correlations between axillary lymph node dissection and religious actions toward spirituality (p = 0.024), adjuvant chemotherapy and hope/optimism (p = 0.02), and immediate reconstructive surgery and a search for meaning (p = 0.005) and support (p = 0.032). In conclusion, identifying the religious and spiritual needs of patients might promote better quality of life during cancer treatment.

Keywords

breast cancer - spirituality - religious coping - psychological adaptation - coping behaviors

Ethics Statement

The present study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and was was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of A.C. Camargo Cancer Center (under number 3077/20).


Data Availability

All datasets generated for this study are included in the manuscript and/or the supplementary files.


Consent Data

Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.


Authors' Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. FBAM, SSdS, CHT: conceptualization; MS, SMS, GRMG, SSdS, NTP: material preparation, data collection, and analysis. MS and NTP: writing – first draft. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.


Supplementary Material



Publication History

Received: 20 March 2025

Accepted: 11 July 2025

Article published online:
19 March 2026

© 2026. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Thieme Revinter Publicações Ltda.
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Bibliographical Record
Natalia Tomaz Pires, Marina Sonagli, Silvana Soares dos Santos, Cristina Haas Tarabay, Solange Moraes Sanches, Guilherme Rocha Melo Gondim, Fabiana Baroni Alves Makdissi. Association between Spirituality, Religiosity, and Breast Cancer Treatment. Brazilian Journal of Oncology 2026; 22: s00451811729.
DOI: 10.1055/s-0045-1811729
 

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