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Updated: Aug 16, 2025
Through the Looking Glass: Time-lapse Microscopy and Longitudinal Tracking of Single Cells to Study Anti-cancer Therapeutics
Published on: May 14, 2016
The rhythm of chemotherapy and cancer patients' time perspectives
Marcin Moskalewicz1,2, Piotr Kordel1, Anna Sterna1
1Philosophy and Mental Health Unit, Department of Social Sciences and the Humanities, Poznań University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Wielkopolskie, Poland.
Background:
While it is well known that illnesses such as cancer modify the experience of time, the impact of the rhythm and length of treatment on patients' time perspectives remains unknown.
Methods:
A short version of Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory and Transcendental Future Perspective Questionnaire as well as a demographic questionnaire on a convenience sample of 259 patients (66.8% female, mean age 52.36) with various cancers and undergoing chemotherapy with different frequencies (1, 2, 3 weeks) and mean time in treatment 23.4 months.
Results:
The temporal perspectives mean scores of cancer patients are: positive past 3.69, negative past 3.13, present hedonism 3.08, future 3.77, transcendental future 3.40. Patients tend only slightly to lose faith alongside the course of oncological treatment regardless of their age (ρ = - 0.210, p < 0.01). The frequency of chemotherapy mildly differentiates temporal perspectives of patients regarding present hedonism and transcendental future: a weekly treatment is more disturbing than the triweekly one and no treatment in terms of hedonism, while patients not in chemo score significantly higher in transcendental future than patients in biweekly and triweekly chemo.
Conclusions:
The variations of treatment rhythm are less significant than predicted, although still relevant. Since most sociodemographic variables are of no relevance, cancer experience likely unifies temporal perspectives among people of different backgrounds.
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