Hospital Based Group Intervention for Breast Cancer Patients.

Women operated for breast cancer often experience psychosocial problems for several years. Although, meta-analyses have clearly demonstrated that the efficacy of psychosocial support groups, little is known about the effectiveness of this intervention when offered in the hospital setting as a component of routine breast cancer care.

A few studies have found that psychological intervention reduce emotional distress and enhance immune responses,but if there is an association between coping styles and immune system is not clear.

440 breast cancer patients at two Hospital will be randomized into the study. Both Hospital have standardised psychoeducative interventions as a component of routine breast cancer care. Both Hospital will have two groups, the standardised groups and the experimental groups. Participants will answer the same standardised questionnaires before surgery,2,6,12 months and 3 and 5 years after the interventions. Blood sample will be drawn at all assessments. The questionnaires are the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Mini-mental Adjustment to Cancer Scale, the EORTC QLQ-BR32, the Life Orientation Test-Revised.

All groups are facilitated by two nurse specialists and follow a structured program. The standardised groups consists of three weekly 2-hours sessions and the experimental groups will consists of six weekly 2-hours session. The intervention protocol has been approved by the Norwegian Committee for medical research Ethics.

Knowledge from this study will be used to develop a manual for hospital based group interventions for breast cancer patients.