Core concerns of couples living with early stage breast cancer

Although clinicians and scientists have a growing awareness of breast cancer as a couple's joint experience, no one has studied the concerns couples choose to address with a professional coach to better manage the impact of the cancer. The purpose of the current study was to describe illness-related concerns couples worked on together with masters-educated professional coaches during the first eleven months of the wife's treatment for early stage breast cancer.

Intervention sessions were conducted with twenty-nine couples in their homes in the Pacific Northwest.

Data were obtained from single occasion case intensive interviews with couples.

Inductive coding of the audiorecorded intervention sessions yielded four domains of core concerns: dealing with tension in the relationship; needing to be together as a couple; wondering about the children; and managing the threat of breast cancer.

Over half the couples chose to address and do something about the stress, tension and dissatisfaction they were feeling in their relationship that each attributed to the breast cancer. Future family-focused cancer care needs to include services that assist couples to address these core concerns.