The Change Cycle Intervention for Improving Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Survivors

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among North American women. A combination of screening mammography and improvements in treatment has resulted in a substantial decrease in mortality which explains why more women diagnosed at a younger age are becoming long-term survivors.Consequently, quality of life (QL) issues have become increasingly important in the contemporary multidisciplinary management of breast cancer. Standard of car survivorship program has evolved over several years to include 3 facets: (1)clinical surveillance program to include routine follow up exams; (2) local support group programs; and (3) rehabilitation program offering physical and occupational rehab, along with lymphedema prevention and treatment. Many studies have reported on successful interventions (listed in our references) with improvements in quality of life; however the effects did not last long after intervention. This has brought into question the real value of such interventions. The proposed class will focus on teaching life skills that have shown long-lasting effect in the corporate world of change. Thus, our goal is to determine if the impact of the class will be similar in the healthcare arena, specifically cancer survivorship. Our last study on assessing quality of life revealed that patients were suffering deficits in quality of life, specifically with regard to the emotional scale despite the standard of care approach available. We therefore propose this intervention to be studied as proof of concept so that depending on the results of the proposed trial, this class can become a routine part of the survivorship program.