Files and links (1)
Patients experiences of vulvar cancer diagnosis and treatment results from a consumer-guided qualitative study801.65 kB
Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
Patients’ experiences of vulvar cancer diagnosis and treatment: results from a consumer-guided qualitative study
Cancer Survivorship Research & Care, Vol.2(1), pp.1-16
2024
Abstract
Background:
Despite increased attention for the use of sentinel node biopsy (SNB) for the management of vulvar cancer as a less invasive technique compared with lymph node dissection (LND), patient views on this technique are unknown. This study explored patients’ experiences of being diagnosed and treated for vulvar cancer and to enhance our understanding of the patient view of SNB.
Methods:
Ten women who had received surgery (with or without lymph node removal) for vulvar cancer in the previous five years participated in a semi-structured qualitative interview in 2022. A consumer-led research group guided thematic analysis of the data.
Results:
Ten women were interviewed ranging in age (41–82 years). Treatment included either lymph node removal during initial surgery (n = 4), or following a routine scan identifying a change (n = 2); four vulvar cancer patients were being monitored with ultrasound at the time of the interview. Five main themes were identified: (1) difficult diagnostic experiences; (2) lack of support and information; (3) challenges with treatment decision-making; (4) patients’ perspectives of LND and SNB with monitoring; (5) trauma of treatment.
Conclusions:
SNB seems acceptable to patients and potentially offers a less invasive alternative to standard treatment, which should be further investigated.
Details
- Title
- Patients’ experiences of vulvar cancer diagnosis and treatment: results from a consumer-guided qualitative study
- Authors
- T. DiSipio (Corresponding Author) - School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, AustraliaMeredith Johnston - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Academic Support UnitA. Mellon - John Hunter HospitalM. Williams - Sunny Sisters Gynaecological Cancer Support GroupL. McQuire - Australia New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology GroupE. Beller - Bond UniversityM. Janda - The University of QueenslandA. Obermair - Queensland Centre for Gynaecological Cancer, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- Publication details
- Cancer Survivorship Research & Care, Vol.2(1), pp.1-16
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Date published
- 2024
- DOI
- 10.1080/28352610.2024.2368546
- ISSN
- 2835-2610
- Copyright note
- © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
- Data Availability
- The participants of this study did not give written consent for their data to be shared publicly, do due to the sensitive nature of the research supporting data are not available.
- Organisation Unit
- Academic Support Unit
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 991049697502621
- Output Type
- Journal article
Metrics
38 Record Views