Qualitative assessment of information and decision support needs for managing menopausal symptoms after breast cancer.

Purpose: For breast cancer (BrCa) survivors, premature menopause can result from conventional cancer treatment. Due to limited treatment options, survivors often turn to complementary therapies (CTs), but struggle to make informed decisions. In this study, we identified BrCa survivors' CT and general information and decision-making needs related to menopausal symptoms.

Sun-related behavior after a diagnosis of cutaneous malignant melanoma.

Cutaneous malignant melanoma is a significant public health problem in Western countries, and the probability that patients with one melanoma will develop a second one is high. This study is an attempt to assess and understand sun-related behavior in patients subsequent to a melanoma diagnosis. We recruited 35 melanoma patients diagnosed in 2001 or 2002, who resided in the Greater Vancouver Regional District of British Columbia, Canada, and 35 controls frequency matched by broad age-group, sex, ethnicity, and area of residence to patients.

The influence of significant others in complementary and alternative medicine decisions by cancer patients.

Individuals living with cancer are faced with numerous treatment decisions that encompass both conventional therapies and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Although a beginning body of research has explored the CAM decision-making process by cancer patients, the social context of these treatment decisions has been largely ignored. As a part of a larger grounded theory research project exploring CAM decision-making processes of cancer patients living in British Columbia, Canada, the purpose of this secondary inquiry was to explore how significant others were involved in patients' decisions related to CAM.