Foregrounding the built environment in the experience of cancer care: A qualitative study of autobiographical cancer narratives.

Background: For cancer patients, exposure to cancer care facilities entails confrontation in multiple ways. The value ascribed to these places grows over time and can be expected to affect the experience of care.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to foreground the role of the built environment in this experience.

Methods: This qualitative study is based on seven autobiographical narratives written by cancer patients being treated in Belgium or in neighbouring countries.

Results: The thematic analysis of these accounts raises awareness of architecture's role in the experience of cancer patients. Their radius of action is typified by the contrasting adventurous undertakings and shrinking lifeworlds. The built environment furthermore provides leads to metaphors for patients to reformulate their experiences of illness and care.

Conclusions: Deterritorialised landscapes of cancer care include multiple, geographically dispersed places of care, rather than a single prominent care facility. Simultaneously, exposure to buildings where formal cancer care takes place is intense and meaningful. Metaphors are linked to the built environment and can be seen, through their use in the narratives, to support coping. Further research could look into the potential of metaphors to enhance understanding between stakeholders collaborating around design for cancer care.