What kind of support do breast cancer patients want? Food, rides and prayer

For 31 days every October, pink ribbons and #BCAM hashtags fl ows our social media timelines with information about breast cancer. That's because cancer has been diagnosed as a cancer and cancer group.

Besides skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and the second-leading cause of cancer death among women (lung cancer is the first). According to the National Cancer Institute, about 3.4 million U.S. women were living with breast cancer in 2015.

Once diagnosed, women are faced with making decisions about different treatments. Do they need surgery, chemotherapy and radiation? And what about hormonal drug therapy, which sometimes needs to be taken as long as 10 years. These are not easy questions. Side effects of these treatments can be used after treatment. Given these challenges, breast cancer treatment is vital.

But often, people do not know what to do. We have conducted a study to see what kind of support. We hope that you will get some ideas.

What a woman wants

In our study, we looked at how women experienced support during breast cancer treatment. We have to focus on African-American women because they are more likely to die from breast cancer than women in the United States. -funded intervention study entitled, "STORY (Sisters Tell Others and Revive Yourself)." In the interviews, we asked questions about what kind of support did you get from your doctor (and other providers) to help you get treated, "to" how did you get a difference in your treatment decisions. "

Our results showed that women experienced support in three key ways: 1) support that puts their expectations; 2) support that exceeded their expectations; and 3) support that did not match what they needed or expected at the time. Women shared how they expected cancer care providers to provide them with informational support:

"I received a lot of information, information and stuff, and if I had any questions, I was given a number that I called. When I went to the hospital to have my port [for chemotherapy] put in and everything, they were real nice there. They feel like I have a lot of information and I had a person there. All I had to do, I needed, she was right there. "-Lydia (pseudonym), age 52, 5 years post-diagnosis

These methods of providing food and beverage services, such as providing cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking, cooking Some have expressed their prayers for them and they have said, "God was going to see me through."

Second, support exceeded womens' expectations when cancer care

"Hey [my doctor] said, 'you'll be fine'. The doctor is going to his wife, but he has been living a long time. She did it, and ended up sending me to the same doctor. And, that kind of eased my mind … because it 's a difference with my treatment.Eddie, age 56, 5 years post-diagnosis

Third, women described situations where the support from others was unhelpful. These times have been broken down, or have been changed in the past.

"(Everyone was) trying to do too much … sometimes you just have to say 'back off, I'm okay'." -Shelly Ann, age 64, 6 years post-diagnosis.

Some women even shared that they did not tell the people in their lives that they needed some other form of support because they did not want to be a burden.

Support is crucial

Whereas our study focused on African-American women, results from an analysis of four large studies that included 9,267 women further confirmed just how critical is for women diagnosed with breast cancer. These larger studies showed that women had their own breast cancer diagnosis, and had higher risk of death.

What causes for breast cancer is that they should be aware that they have a positive impact on their disease. Breast Cancer Survivors and Breast Cancer Survivors of the United States, as suggested by the American Cancer Society, and the Komen Foundation, , or driving them to a doctor's appointment.

Family and friends should also be aware that survivors' support needs may change over time. Key moments when they need to shift when they are involved in such surgery, when they have completed all of their prescribed breast cancer treatments.

Because breast cancer is not a static event, but rather a journey of physical and emotional change, there is no "one size fits all" approach to supporting women with this disease. Knowing how best to support breast cancer survivors is an ongoing process of changing expectations and needs in their treatment experience.

Breast cancer survivors and breast cancer survivors. In the meantime, let's keep fighting breast cancer by promoting mammograms and by extending breast cancer.