Comparative Analysis of the Current Status, Own Body Perception and Positive Experience From Diagnosed Breast Cancer

Comparative analysis of the current status, own body perception and positive experience within a period of up to 1 year from diagnosing ofwomen with breast cancer (N = 41; mean age 35.25) in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd stages of the disease progress, of Bulgarian origin, was made.Reliability and validity of the scales were described. They were analysed with respect to: 1) medical characteristics (partial or total surgery,surgical removal of lymph nodes, presence or absence of metastases in them), 2) classical therapies (chemotherapy, radiation therapy andhormonal therapy) administered or not and 3) application or not of alternative therapies (herbal medicine, physical load, administration ofmassage, lymph drainage, use of nutritional supplements, observance of diet). The results showed that the more therapies the personssurveyed were undergone the more unsatisfactory they assessed their current general status. The bigger the size of the surgery performedto remove the tumour the more positive idea of their own bodies they had. The more time after the surgical treatment passed the more thepositive experience accumulated from the oncologic diagnosis grew.