Religion and spirituality: their role in the psychosocial adjustment to breast cancer and subsequent symptom management of adjuvant endocrine therapy.

Objective: Distress from being diagnosed with breast cancer can impact a woman's decision to continue taking adjuvant endocrine therapy (AET). The purpose of this study is to explore how religion and/or spirituality influence women's psychosocial adjustment to breast cancer and subsequent symptom management among women on active AET.

Methods: Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with breast cancer survivors (n = 19) from California and Texas. Interview questions prompted discussion about AET and how women adjusted to a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment with AET. Interview transcripts were analyzed with a deductive grounded theory approach, and an inductive constant comparison approach was used to identify the sources of religion and spirituality.

Results: Religion supported women in their psychosocial adjustment to breast cancer by offering them a sense of purpose and meaning in life. It helped women make sense of their AET treatment as they persisted with it despite experiencing adverse side-effects. Spirituality played a prominent role in women's mental and physical wellbeing by facilitating positive and calm attitudes, which lessened women's fear during their cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Conclusions: We identified that religion and/or spirituality helps women with their adjustment to breast cancer and influences their continued use and management of side-effects from AET. This study illustrates the importance of developing meaning-centered interventions that harness religion and spirituality to help women cope with AET. Our findings support the development of interventions that work to enhance AET persistence among breast cancer survivors.