The experiences and perceptions of female breast cancer patients regarding weight management during and after treatment for oestrogen‑receptor positive disease: a qualitative study

Background:
Weight gain is commonly observed during and after breast cancer treatment and is associated withpoorer survival outcomes, notably in women with oestrogen-receptor positive disease. The aim of this qualitativestudy was to investigate the experiences and perceptions of oestrogen-receptor positive (ER +) female breast cancerpatients (BCPs) regarding weight management behaviours during and after treatment. Secondly, to gain insight intothe experiences of healthcare professionals (HCPs) regarding the provision of weight management advice to patientsundergoing treatment.
Methods:
Four focus groups involving 16 BCPs having a median (range) age of 51 (35–70 y) and three focus groupsinvolving 21 HCPs aged 46 (29–62) were held at a university campus, local cancer support centre or clinical site. Datawere analysed using Framework analysis.
Results:
Four overarching themes (and 10 subthemes) were identified: (1) Treatment; (2) Support for lifestyle behav-iour change; (3) Information availability for BCPs; (4) Knowledge of current evidence amongst HCPs. The physical andpsychological consequences of treatment influenced motivation for weight management amongst BCPs. Social sup-port for health promoting behaviours was viewed as important but was conflicting, requiring context-specific consid-erations. BCPs said they would have welcomed access to credible information (guided by HCPs) about the potentialdetrimental health effects of excess body weight and weight gain, together with advice on weight managementvia healthy eating and physical activity. HCPs felt that they had insufficient knowledge of public health dietary andphysical activity recommendations or evidence-based interventions to confidently offer such advice. HCPs expressedconcern that raising weight management issues would exacerbate distress or invoke feelings of guilt amongst BCPs,and cited time pressures on patient consultations as additional barriers to providing weight management support.