ABSTRACT

Although it is possible to generalize about patients’ reactions to breast cancer, physicians and nurses need to understand that each woman will react differently when she confronts the symptoms of this disease. Patient’s response is shaped by family history, age, marital status, knowledge and perception of the disease, and self-image, as well as many other, more subtle influences. Because these factors intimately affect the woman’s ultimate acceptance or denial of the disease, in turn that determine the way she will cope with the changes imposed by the disease on her life and lifestyle.

For these reasons, physicians and nurses should take time to learn about the woman herself as well as about her breast cancer. Such information will help the professional in working with the patient and with important people in her life, and will help to ascertain the degree of candor and the amount of information she is prepared to handle at each step of diagnosis and treatment.