HOW BREAST-CANCER PATIENTS ARE PERCEIVED - EFFECTS OF TREATMENT METHOD, AGE, AND TIME SINCE SURGERY

Three hundred undergraduate students read one of 12 vignettes about a hypothetical breast cancer patient, completed the Profile of Mood Stat es (POMS) as they thought she would, and completed a questionnaire (Pe rception of Medical Patients Questionnaire; PMPQ) designed to elicit t heir perceptions of her. Vignettes differed according to time since su rgery (5 days, 3 months, or 15 months), treatment method (lumpectomy w ith radiation or mastectomy) and age of the patient (32 or 62 years). As predicted, patients whose surgery occurred most recently were viewe d as more distressed than the other patients. Subjects perceived maste ctomy patients to have greater sexual problems, be more likely to need counselling, and to be more embarrassed than lumpectomy patients. On the other hand, patients treated with lumpectomy and radiation were ra ted higher on an index of fatigue than were mastectomy patients. No di fferences between treatment method were found in terms of the amount o f additional emotional support patients would need. Subjects expected younger patients to survive longer and look less ill, but the predicte d differences between older and younger patients in terms of likelihoo d of sexual adjustment problems was not found.