Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 17, 2026

Laparoscopic Radical Gastrectomy for Remnant Gastric Cancer
Published on: October 31, 2025
The protective effect of a satisfying romantic relationship on women's body image after breast cancer: a longitudinal
Sarah Cairo Notari1, Luca Notari1, Nicolas Favez1
1Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Objective:
To examine the protective role of relationship satisfaction on body image in women with breast cancer throughout the first year post-surgery.
Methods:
Seventy-four Swiss patients engaged in a relationship filled out a questionnaire assessing body image disturbance 2 weeks, 3 months, and 1 year after surgery. A univariate latent change score model was used to analyze the evolution of body image disturbance and the contribution of relationship satisfaction to body image disturbance.
Results:
Women who were satisfied with their relationship reported less body image disturbance than did dissatisfied women at 2 weeks post-surgery. Being married was also associated with less body image disturbance at that time. The protective effect of these relational variables was still observable 1 year later. Changes in body image disturbance over time were explained by the negative impacts of mastectomy and chemotherapy.
Conclusions:
How women perceive the impact of breast cancer treatment on their body may be partly determined by the quality of the relational context in which they live.
Related Concept Videos
Social Relationships and Well-Being
Disorders of the Female Reproductive System
Jealousy in Romantic Relationships
Cancer Prevention
Some...
Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...
Cancer Therapies
However, cancer treatments can pose several challenges, as therapies used to kill cancer cells are generally also toxic to normal cells. Moreover, cancer cells mutate rapidly and can develop resistance to chemical agents or radiation therapy. Besides, all types of cancer cells may not respond to the same therapy. Some cancer cells respond to one...

