Aim

The purposes were to understand the needs of women with suspected breast cancer

before and after diagnosis, to compare the differences in level of needs between benign

and malignancy group of women, and to determine how different are needs by

demographic, breast symptoms and history, and result of diagnosis.

Background

Needs for breast cancer had been identified widely, limited cross-sectional studies focused on the suspected breast cancer women were found, and no evidence information was known about the women with suspected breast cancer perceived needs in Taiwan.

Method

A self-administrated Suspected Breast Cancer Patient’s Needs Questionnaire and demographics of women was developed and used to collect data from women who have suspected as breast cancer at three different time points of diagnosis.

Results

127 women participated in this study. The majority of women had received surgical breast biopsy (79.23%). The length of waiting for the results of breast biopsy ranged from 2 days to 31 days with mean of 8.65 days (SE =0.49 days). 47 women had diagnosed as benign outcomes and 80 as malignancy. The findings indicated that women reported having high level of needs for the domain of diagnosis, follow-up and consultation, information of disease and treatments, and emotional support.  Before diagnosis, the total scores for need and domain of diagnosis, disease and involvement had significantly higher than after knowing the results. However, no significantly difference was found between malignancy and benign group of women in overall information needs. Women with married, more education, and no previous history of benign tumor had higher needs, while age, religious, support system, family history, current status, and symptoms were not related to the level of needs.

Conclusions

Nurses should be aware the needs for women before and after diagnosis, and provide women and their families with supportive medical health care.