Breast Cancer Survival: A Phenomenological Inquiry

This inquiry describes the experience of 45 female breast cancer survivors using Schutz's interpretation of phenomenology as the theoretical framework. The research design is a multicase, comparative situational analysis. Breast cancer survival is explored from the points of view of all study participants. A dialectic is formed that juxtaposes etic and emic views of survival to enhance understanding of the meaning of breast cancer survival. Hermeneutic analysis yielded commonalities in meanings, situations, and life experiences. Analysis was further divided into thematic analysis, depiction of exemplars, and paradigm cases to provide clarity and vividness to the multifaceted phenomenon of breast cancer survival.