Perceived Factors Related to Delayed Presentation of Breast Cancer among Women with Stage III and IV Breast Cancer in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The most common cancers to be diagnosed in women are breast, lung, and colorectal cancers, which when combined represent one-half of all the cancer cases; breast cancer alone accounts for 30% of all new cancer diagnoses in women. Hence breast cancer becomes the most common cause for cancer deaths worldwide among women. Delay in presentation of breast cancer causes increase morbidity, mortality and decreased survival rate of these patients. Therefore, this study was conducted to examine the perceived factors related to delayed presentation of breast cancer among women. One hundred and fifty-one female patients with breast cancer stage III and IV, admitted to the Oncology ward and Oncology clinic in the Teaching Hospital, Kandy, were purposively recruited for this quantitative descriptive study. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Study was conducted during the period January to April 2016. The results highlighted that 67% of patients were unaware of the symptoms of breast cancer. Further, 29% of patients deliberately delayed treatment due to perceived embarrassment in exposing their breasts to medical practitioners; 44% of patients followed the same course of action due to perceived fear of partner abandonment. Significantly, 76% of patients were not aware of self-breast examination method whereas 78% never attended the “Well Women Clinic” (Suwa Nari Sayanaya) which is conducted for the improvement of women’s health. Furthermore, 83% of the patients did not have family histories of breast cancer. The findings concluded that the lack of awareness among patients on symptoms and the self-breast examination method, never attending Well Women Clinic, fear of partner abandonment, perceived embarrassment in disclosing breasts to medical practitioners and negative family histories were common factors related to delayed presentation of breast cancer among women. Therefore, it is recommended to establish effective public awareness programs to increase early diagnosis, prognosis, survival rate and improve overall quality of life among patients with breast cancer