Lived Experiences of Health-Related Quality of Life Among Women With Breast Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy: A Phenomenological Study
Keywords:
Breast Cancer, Chemotherapy, Health-Related Quality of Life, Lived Experience, Phenomenology, Women, Qualitative ResearchAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of health-related quality of life among women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy in Canada.
Methods and Materials: This qualitative study was conducted using a phenomenological design. The participants were 22 women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy in oncology treatment centers in Canada, selected through purposive sampling with maximum variation in age, marital status, disease stage, treatment duration, and socioeconomic background. Data were collected through individual semi-structured in-depth interviews using an interview guide focused on physical, psychological, social, emotional, functional, and meaning-related dimensions of health-related quality of life. A demographic and clinical information form and field notes were also used to enrich the contextual understanding of participants’ experiences. Interviews continued until data saturation was achieved. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, anonymized, and analyzed using Colaizzi’s phenomenological method.
Findings: The inferential analysis of participants’ narratives led to the extraction of five major themes reflecting the essential structure of health-related quality of life during chemotherapy. The first theme, embodied disruption and treatment burden, indicated that fatigue, nausea, pain, neuropathy, sleep disturbance, and reduced functioning reshaped women’s bodily control and daily independence. The second theme, altered identity, femininity, and body image, showed that hair loss, breast changes, and visible signs of illness affected self-perception and femininity. The third theme, emotional vulnerability and existential uncertainty, reflected anxiety before chemotherapy, fear of recurrence, sadness, and confrontation with mortality. The fourth theme, relational reorganization and social dependence, revealed changes in family, marital, parental, and social roles. The fifth theme, preserving normality, meaning, and control, demonstrated women’s efforts to maintain routines, seek information, accept support, use coping strategies, and sustain hope.
Conclusion: Health-related quality of life among women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy is a multidimensional and dynamic lived experience shaped by bodily symptoms, emotional uncertainty, altered identity, social dependence, and meaning-making processes. The findings highlight the need for holistic, patient-centered oncology care that addresses physical symptoms alongside emotional, relational, sexual, functional, and existential dimensions of treatment.
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