Men's perspectives sn individual and family coping with their wives' breast cancer and chemotherapy

Little research has examined the impact of cancer and chemotherapy treatmen t for breast cancer from men's perspectives as partners, fathers, and careg ivers. This research, part of a larger study describing women's, partners', and children's perspectives, aims to describe men's perspectives on their experiences and how their wives' breast cancer and chemotherapy impacted th em and their families, to describe what facilitated and hindered their copi ng, and to suggest interventions to assist men and their families to manage the experience with less stress. This participatory action study used qual itative naturalistic inquiry methods. Semistructured interviews were conduc ted with 11 male partners. Two major themes were identified:focusing on a w ife's illness and care. and focusing on the family to keep life going. Nine subthemes cut across the major themes: being there, relying on health care professionals, being informed and contributing to decision making, trying to keep patterns normal and family life going, helping out and relying on o thers, being positive, putting self on hold adapting work life, and managin g finances.