Body image dimensions and cancer: a heuristic cognitive behavioural model

The term body image has been associated with a multitude of definitions within psychosocial oncology. It is well known that cancer and cancer treatments often have a negative impact on appearance-related variables. A growing literature has emerged in recent years on the psychological aspects of changed appearance. This work has mainly addressed weight-related appearance and the psychology of eating disorders. A number of themes have emerged from this work. These themes have been strongly influenced by a cognitive behavioural perspective. There seems, however, to have been few attempts to integrate findings from such work with attempts to understand cancer-related appearance changes. This paper outlines some of the key developments within body image psychology and suggests a heuristic cognitive behavioural model that could be applied to the assessment, conceptualisation and treatment of body image disturbance among cancer patients.