Women's experience of breast reconstruction version 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A qualitative study exploring women's lived experience of immediate breast reconstruction following mastectomy for breast cancer.
IRAS ID
192472
Contact name
Natalie Doyle
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
n/a, n/a
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 5 months, 15 days
Research summary
The study aims to explore the lived experience of women who have undergone immediate breast reconstruction following mastectomy for breast cancer.
Breast cancer has been the most common cancer in the UK since 1997. It is the most common cancer among women in the UK (Cancer Research UK 2011) accounting for 30% of all new cases of cancer in females. Breast cancer survival is improving and has doubled in the last 40 years in the UK. In the 1970s, 4 in 10 women diagnosed with breast cancer survived their disease beyond ten years, now it's around 8 in 10. This is largely due to breast awareness; breast screening and significant advances in treatments. With this in mind it stands to reason that more women are considering the long-term outcomes and survival of breast cancer. This in turn has seen an increase in the number of women interested in exploring breast reconstruction. A National Mastectomy and Breast Reconstruction Audit has reported an increase in numbers of women undergoing breast reconstruction from 18% in 1980 to almost 50% in 2008. Recommendations for future practice from this include equality in services available to women and also better provision of information about potential outcomes which could help women in decision making when considering reconstruction.
Women who have undergone mastectomy and immediate implant breast reconstruction in the last 5 years will be eligible. The study will be conducted at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton.
Participants will undergo one face to face interview with the researcher. The interview will be recorded and transcribed word for word soon after the interview concludes. The information in these transcripts will then be analysed to pick out themes.
It is deemed that the findings from this study would inform clinical teams when supporting women exploring the potential outcomes from breast reconstruction.REC name
North West - Greater Manchester West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/NW/0257
Date of REC Opinion
5 Apr 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion