Psychological symptoms of breast cancer survivors: a comparison with matched healthy controls and the association with cancer-related stress and coping.

The first aim of this study was to examine the psychological health of long-term breast cancer survivors who had undergone a mastectomy and were disease-free since treatment, in comparison with a matched healthy control group. A second aim was to examine the association between symptoms and cancer-related stress and coping. A total of 103 Greek breast cancer survivors, who had undergone a mastectomy more than 3 years ago and were free of any metastasis or relapse, participated in the study. The comparison group consisted of 100 women matched for age, education and marital status. Survivors scored significantly higher only in depressive symptomatology. Cancer-related stress and certain coping strategies were associated with psychological symptoms, even after controlling for demographic variables and time since mastectomy. Stress and focusing on the positive played a significant role in predicting depressive symptomatology.