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Factors Associated with “Survivor Identity” in Men with Breast Cancer Dalton, Kathryn L.; Garland, Sheila N.; Miller, Peggy; Miller, Bret; Ambrose, Cheri; Wassersug, Richard J. (Richard Joel), 1946-

Abstract

Cancer patients vary in their comfort with the label “survivor”. Here, we explore how comfortable males with breast cancer (BC) are about accepting the label cancer “survivor”. Separate univariate logistic regressions were performed to assess whether time since diagnosis, age, treatment status, and cancer stage were associated with comfort with the “survivor” label. Of the 70 males treated for BC who participated in the study, 58% moderately-to-strongly liked the term “survivor”, 26% were neutral, and 16% moderately-to-strongly disliked the term. Of the factors we explored, only a longer time since diagnosis was significantly associated with the men endorsing a survivor identity (OR = 1.02, p = 0.05). We discuss how our findings compare with literature reports on the comfort with the label “survivor” for women with BC and men with prostate cancer. Unlike males with prostate cancer, males with BC identify as “survivors” in line with women with BC. This suggests that survivor identity is more influenced by disease type and treatments received than with sex/gender identities.

Item Metadata

Title
Factors Associated with “Survivor Identity” in Men with Breast Cancer
Creator
Dalton, Kathryn L.; Garland, Sheila N.; Miller, Peggy; Miller, Bret; Ambrose, Cheri; Wassersug, Richard J. (Richard Joel), 1946-
Publisher
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
Date Issued
2021-04-30
Description
Cancer patients vary in their comfort with the label “survivor”. Here, we explore how comfortable males with breast cancer (BC) are about accepting the label cancer “survivor”. Separate univariate logistic regressions were performed to assess whether time since diagnosis, age, treatment status, and cancer stage were associated with comfort with the “survivor” label. Of the 70 males treated for BC who participated in the study, 58% moderately-to-strongly liked the term “survivor”, 26% were neutral, and 16% moderately-to-strongly disliked the term. Of the factors we explored, only a longer time since diagnosis was significantly associated with the men endorsing a survivor identity (OR = 1.02, p = 0.05). We discuss how our findings compare with literature reports on the comfort with the label “survivor” for women with BC and men with prostate cancer. Unlike males with prostate cancer, males with BC identify as “survivors” in line with women with BC. This suggests that survivor identity is more influenced by disease type and treatments received than with sex/gender identities.
Subject
male breast cancer; cancer survivor; cancer identity; sex; gender; survivorship
Genre
Article
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2021-07-09
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
CC BY 4.0
DOI
10.14288/1.0400103
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/78894
Affiliation
Medicine, Faculty of; Non UBC; Cellular and Physiological Sciences, Department of
Citation
Current Oncology 28 (3): 1696-1705 (2021)
Publisher DOI
10.3390/curroncol28030158
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty
Rights URI
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

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CC BY 4.0