Is early-stage breast cancer a risk for marital-dissolution?

Abstract

Objective: The effect of breast cancer on family life and marital status is one of the issues to investigate. Our aim in this study is to evaluate the frequency of divorce of breast cancer survivors and to investigate the demographic, disease, and treatment-related factors that may affect the divorce.
 Material and Methods: We performed this cross-sectional study between January 2020 and May 2020. Inclusion criteria were; women who were married at the time of breast cancer diagnosis, older than 18 years of age, and completed at least 6 months after breast cancer surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy/radiotherapy. The primary aim of this study was to find the marital dissolution rate of the patients after early-stage breast cancer diagnosis and adjuvant treatment. The secondary aim was to investigate the demographics and treatment-related factors affecting the marital status of breast cancer survivors.
 Results: The median age of 583 women included in the study was 47 (28-72). The median time to stay married was 291.0 months (min-max: 32.5-654.6). The most preferred surgical method in these patients was total mastectomy (n = 364, 62.4%). Adjuvant chemotherapy was applied to 505 (86.6%) patients, adjuvant endocrine therapy to 499 (85.6%) patients, and adjuvant radiotherapy to 460 (78.9%) patients. 21 (3.6%) patients divorced after diagnosis. In univariate analysis, surgery type, adjuvant chemotherapy, adjuvant radiotherapy, and adjuvant endocrine therapy were found to not affect the divorce.
 Conclusion: In our study, it was observed that the frequency of divorce was higher in breast cancer survivors than the general population, and breast surgery type and adjuvant treatments did not cause an increase in the risk of divorce.