Abstract
Hormone therapy is commonly used for breast cancer patients in Japan. Although horomonotherapy is recognized to have few side effects, complications such as hot flashes may cause impaired quality of life of the patients. The aim of the present study was to reveal the psychological state of breast cancer patients through an exploratory analysis of their narratives by Text Mining Studio, a text mining software. Participants were ten breast cancer patients who had experienced both surgery and hormone therapy. The narratives were collected in a semi-structured interview and analyzed by using the software. Word frequency analysis showed that the words used in narratives were associated with not only therapy but also patients' daily life, such as family and work. The words were classified into three areas: therapeutic experience, daily life experience, and psychological and physical conditions. In the hormonotherapy category, words related to psychological states were rarer than in the operation category. Correspondence analysis showed two clusters of participant: those with sufficient family support narratives and those with narratives of suffering from symptoms. Analysis of patients' narratives revealed that mitigation of physical symptoms led to alleviation of anxiety in relation to surgery. In relation to hormone therapy, there was no such relationship between physical and psychological distress. Narratives of younger patients are needed in a future study. The present study abductively suggests that a variety of support for breast cancer patients by nursing professionals is necessary to alleviate physical pain and psychological anxiety. In addition, the strong support from family members helps patients confront their lives positively. Construction of support contents on the basis of understanding variations of patients' narratives is an important task for professionals.
