Challenge:
Coping with breast cancer increasingly becomes a major socio-economic challenge – not least due to the constantly rising incidence of the disease in the developing world. There is a growing need for novel strategies to improve both general understanding and the capacity to predict the resilience of women to the variety of stressful experiences and practical challenges related to breast cancer.
Solution:
The BOUNCE research project was commissioned by the European Commission. It brought together modeling, medical, and social sciences experts from five European countries to advance current knowledge on the dynamic nature of resilience as it relates to efficient recovery from breast cancer.
In the BOUNCE project, a prospective multi-center clinical pilot was conducted at four major oncology centers (in Italy, Finland, Israel, and Portugal). In the clinical study, the medical and psychosocial trajectories of approximately 550 women who were diagnosed with breast cancer 10-16 months earlier were tracked. Participating women were assessed every three months on a long list of potentially relevant variables as they bounce back during the highly stressful treatment and recovery period following the diagnosis of breast cancer.
Result:
In the project model and tool to predict resilience among breast cancer patients were created and evaluated. NHG was responsible for assessing the cost and benefit of the tool in clinical use. The evaluation indicated that the use of the tool improved clinician predictions of patient quality of life during breast cancer treatment.
Learn more on BOUNCE research project’s website.