Breast Cancer

Purpose: Considering the importance of cancer in human societies and its negative effects on human body and psyche, the aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Schema Therapy on resiliency of breast cancer patients in East Tehran Medical Centers. Methodology: This study is a pilot study with single stage cluster sampling method. We selected 150 patients with breast cancer in East of Tehran. The Connor-Davidson Resiliency Questionnaire was presented. Forty-five subjects were randomly selected and divided into three groups of 15, consisting of two interventions and one control group, 12 sessions of group schema therapy and 12 sessions of acceptance-based therapy, each session lasting 90 minutes. Each intervention was performed twice a week for 3 days. At the end of treatment all three groups were tested. Findings: The finding showed that there is a significant difference between the experimental group under the influence of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Schema Therapy in post-test resiliency. F (1.41) = 530/35. Conclusion: The results showed that schema therapy is more effective on resiliency than, Commitment-Based and Acceptance.

In recent scenario, women are suffering from breast cancer disease across the world. Mammography is one of the important methods to detect breast cancer early; that to reduce the cost and workload of radiologists. Medical image processing is a tremendous technique used to determine the disease in advance to reduce the risk factor. To predict the disease from 2-D mammography images for diagnosing and detecting based on advanced soft computing paradigm. Still, to get more accuracy in all coordinate axes, 3-D mammography imaging is used to capture depth information from all different angles. After the reconstruction of this process, a better quality of 3D mammography is obtained. It is useful for the experts to identify the disease in well advance. To improve the accuracy of disease findings, deep convolution neural networks (CNN) can be applied for automatic feature learning, and classifier building. This work also presents a comparison of the other state of art methods used in the last decades.

Objective: Purpose of this research was investigation of how effects of marriage and poor sexual performance. Methods: Based on the theoretical sampling method, 20 women who were diagnosed breast cancer in Tehran city were chosen and individually had structured interviews. The data analysis was done by using the phenomenological method and encoded texts from the interviews. The results of the study identified 2 centers categories and 7 main categories such as many sexual problems like vaginal dryness, pain during intercourse, sexual reluctance and etc. are caused by lack of knowledge, shyness, the male dominated society and lack of proper trainings. They don’t follow their treatment process and this can be the reason of so many problems in their relationships. They don’t even talk about their sexual problems for fear of being abandoned by their husbands and these women face with frustration due to the changes that had happened in their bodies. All these women have experienced at least one of the disgust factors as physical and emotional exhaustion, suffering physical exhaustion due to losing their breast, suffering emotional exhaustion after losing the support of their family and husbands, thoughts of death and end of life and fear of not returning the days before their diseases make them suffer mentally. Conclusion:  Women in the studies believed that the most main threat to their life is losing their most important sex organ which is their breast.

Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy on anxiety and quality of life in women with breast cancer. Method: A quasi-experimental design was used to collect pre-test, post-test and follow-up data (three months after) from treatment and control groups. The sample consisted of 30 women with breast cancer in Tehran who had a high score in anxiety after screening. They were selected based on purposive sampling and randomly placed in experimental and control groups of size 15. The experimental group received 12 sessions (50 minutes) of emotion-focused therapy (Greenberg, 2010). The control group did not receive an intervention. Data were collected using Beck Anxiety Inventory and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Breast Cancer (FACT-B) in three stages: pre-test, post-test, and follow up, and analyzed using mixed variance analysis. Findings: Results showed significant within and between subject differences (P<0.01) on measures of anxiety and quality of life. Emotion-focused therapy significantly reduced anxiety and increased quality of life in the treatment group relative to the control group. Moreover, post-test and follow-up levels of anxiety and quality of life differed significantly from pre-test levels, but not from each other. Conclusion: Emotion-focused therapy targeting emotional processing and expression improved [d1] regulation of clients' emotions and can be used as an appropriate intervention method to reduce anxiety and increase quality of life in women with breast cancer.

Objective: The present study determined the fit of hope model based on spiritual health, body image, family support, and health locus of control mediated by social comparison in patients with postoperative breast cancer. Method: The sample of the study included 400 women selected using the purposive sampling method from patients with breast cancer who after surgery referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Tehran in the spring and summer of 2021. Data collection tools included Gibbons and Buunk's Social Comparison Orientation Scale (1993), Khodapnahi et al.'s Social Support Questionnaire (2009), Schneider Hope Scale (1991), Paloutzian and Ellison's Spiritual Well-Being Scale (1982), Cash, Winstead, and Janda's Body Image Questionnaire (1985), and Wallston et al.'s multidimensional Health Locus of control scales (1978). Results: The hope model based on spiritual health, body image, family support, and health locus of control mediated by social comparison in postoperative breast cancer patients had a good fit. Also, spiritual health (r = 0.48), body image (r = 0.46), family support (r = 0.37), and health locus of control (r = 0.23) had a direct correlation and indirect effect on the variable of hope mediated by social comparisons. Conclusion: In order to increase the hope as the inner force needed to fight breast cancer, we can improve the quality of spiritual health, positive body image, family support, source of health control, and social comparison.

 Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the integrated approach of meaning therapy and hope therapy on tolerance of ambiguity, alexithymia, and psychological hardiness of women with breast cancer in Dezful City. Method: The statistical population of this study consisted of all women with breast cancer in Dezful in 2021, from whom 30 people were randomly selected and assigned to experimental and control groups. Toronto Alexithymia Scale (Taylor, 1986), Ambiguity Tolerance Scale, and Hardiness Questionnaire (Kobasa et al.,1982) were administered to both groups. Then the experimental group was subjected to group therapy of the integrated approach of meaning therapy and hope therapy. The number of therapy sessions was eight 90-minute sessions, and after the end of the training course, both experimental and control groups completed the research questionnaires again. After collecting data, multivariate and univariate analyses of variance were used to analyze data via SPSS software. Results: The results of the data analysis confirmed the effectiveness of this integrated approach on tolerance of ambiguity, alexithymia, and psychological hardiness (p≤ 0/001). Also, the results showed the effect of this integrated approach on the dimensions of alexithymia (difficulty in recognizing emotions, difficulty in describing feelings, and extrovert thinking) and the dimensions of psychological hardiness (commitment, control, and struggle). Conclusion: The findings of this study could lead to positive consequences of the integrated approach of meaning therapy and hope therapy in women with breast cancer 

This article juxtaposes different and conflicting temporalities as configured in the context of care and caring. Weaving together (1) an autobiographical narrative in which I share parts of my own breast cancer journey with (2) research with men employed as care workers in Australia, I attempt to get at how differentially experienced temporal densities, trajectories, and orientations can be found when receiving and giving care. The slow and deep time of experiencing sickness, and the protective, forgetful time induced by medical trauma – both often perceived as nonlinear time –, clash with the neoliberal, sped-up, linear temporality of the late-capitalist medical industrial complex; leaving care workers and cared-for squeezed between temporalities that can be, and are, at odds with each other. The theoretical framing holding my consideration of these different ‘kinds’ of time, is a composite of feminist care ethics scholarship, critical time studies and the literary work by the Aboriginal author and scholar Mykaela Saunders. Specifically, I draw on Saunders’s short story ‘Buried time’, in which she connects with Aboriginal deep time and writes the abolition of colonial clock time into being. Taking a cue from Saunders narrative, I maintain that the temporalities of colonial/racial capitalism evince segmentation, fragmentation, and, ultimately, destruction. This is a mechanistic time not suitable for human and more-than-human life’s flourishing (that includes living and dying as well as possible); as such, it is a temporality that stands against the relational paradigms of care theory.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the impact of mindfulness training on experiential avoidance, self-compassion, and certain physiological indices in women diagnosed with breast cancer. Method: This applied research was conducted as a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test, and control group design. The population included all women with stage 1 and 2 breast cancer who were under medical care after completing chemotherapy or radiotherapy at Shahid Tajrish Hospital in 2020-2021. A convenience sampling method was used to select 40 female breast cancer patients, who were equally divided into an experimental group (20 participants) and a control group (20 participants). Data were collected using the Neff's Self-Compassion Scale (Neff, 2003), the Bond et al.'s Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (2011), and physiological indices. Mindfulness training, based on the protocol by Lengacher et al. (2019), consisted of 8 sessions of 90 minutes each for the experimental group, while the control group received no intervention. Data were analyzed using covariance analysis. Findings: The results indicated that mindfulness training significantly increased self-compassion (F = 6.35, p < .05) and decreased experiential avoidance (F = 4.75, p < .05) in women with breast cancer. Additionally, the training significantly reduced cortisol levels (F = 7.38, p < .05), but did not have a significant effect on the concentrations of IL-6 (F = 0.83, p > .05) and CRP (F = 0.04, p > .05). Conclusion: Considering the current findings, it can be said that mindfulness training is effective in improving the psychological condition and reducing stress in women with breast cancer.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy on self-efficacy and posttraumatic growth in women with breast cancer. Methods: This quasi-experimental study (pre-test - post-test with control group) involved 30 women with breast cancer in Sari (2021) who were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned into two groups of 15 participants each, an experimental group and a control group. The measurement instruments used were the General Self-Efficacy Scale by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (1979) and the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory by Tedeschi and Calhoun (1996), completed by the participants. Subsequently, participants in the experimental group attended 10 sessions of 60-minute emotion-focused therapy over a period of ten weeks. However, no therapy sessions were conducted for the control group. Ultimately, data analysis was performed using the covariance analysis method. Findings: The analysis revealed that after the intervention, there was a significant difference between the control and experimental groups in both variables of self-efficacy and posttraumatic growth (p ≤ .05). Significant differences were observed in the components of self-efficacy (general self-preparedness and social self-efficacy) and three components of posttraumatic growth (relating to others, personal strength, and appreciation of life) between the women in the experimental and control groups (p ≤ .05); however, no significant differences were observed in the components of new possibilities and spiritual change. Conclusion: The use of emotion-focused therapy is an appropriate intervention to enhance self-efficacy and posttraumatic growth in women with breast cancer, which can be beneficial for improving psychological well-being and better coping with the disease and treatment.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment-based group therapy on hope and happiness in women diagnosed with breast cancer. Methods: The research was applied and experimental in nature. The design was a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest with a control group. The population consisted of all women diagnosed with breast cancer in Borujerd city, from which 30 participants were selected through non-random convenient sampling using Snyder's Hope Scale (1991) and the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (1990) based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, and were randomly assigned to two groups: the experimental group receiving acceptance and commitment therapy (each group consisting of 15 members) and the control group. The experimental group underwent eight 90-minute sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy, as described by Hayes et al. (2006), once a week, while the control group received no intervention. After the training period, the questionnaires were administered again in both groups at the post-test stage. Data analysis in this study was performed using analysis of covariance. Findings: The results showed that acceptance and commitment-based group therapy significantly improved hope (F = 62.66, p = 0.001) and happiness (F = 43.81, p = 0.001) in women with breast cancer. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this research, it can be concluded that acceptance and commitment-based group therapy enhances hope and happiness in women with breast cancer; therefore, it can be used as an effective intervention method to foster and increase hope and happiness in these women.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy on pain perception and pain catastrophizing in women with breast cancer. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 30 women with breast cancer who referred to Imam Khomeini Hospital in Sari in 2024 were studied using convenience sampling. They were then randomly assigned to two groups: the short-term intensive psychodynamic intervention group (15 participants) and the control group (15 participants) without any intervention. The short-term intensive psychodynamic intervention was implemented according to the protocol by Teska et al. (2005) over 16 weekly sessions, each lasting one and a half hours. The samples were assessed at two stages, pre-test and post-test, using the Pain Perception Questionnaire by Schaal et al. (2010) and the Pain Catastrophizing Scale by Rahmati et al. (2017). Data were analyzed using repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance in SPSS24 software. Findings: In the intervention group, the mean scores for pain catastrophizing were (17.20±36.60) and for pain perception were (36.33±80.80) in the pre-test and post-test stages, respectively. Post-test scores significantly decreased compared to pre-test scores in the components of pain catastrophizing and pain perception in the experimental group compared to the control group. Additionally, the results showed that intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy had a statistically significant effect on pain catastrophizing (P<0.05, F=24.41) and pain perception (P<0.05, F=56.201) after adjusting the means of the two groups based on the pre-test score. Conclusion: The results indicate the effectiveness of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy on pain catastrophizing and pain perception in women with breast cancer. Therefore, this therapy can be used alongside other medical treatment methods in hospitals and clinics dedicated to breast cancer patients to reduce the psychological needs and problems of women with this condition.