Prostate cancer – peculiarities of the process of adaptation to the disease

AIM: Psycho-social adaptation to the diagnosis of cancer is a dynamic process, different from one patient to another, depending on many factors (location, stage, treatment, personality of each individual, environment - family, professional background, social-economic-cultural status). The aim of this study is to analyze the process of adaptation of patients with prostate cancer. PATIENTS AND METHOD: Thirty six patients diagnosed with prostate cancer, admitted in the Department of Oncology, Palliative Care for Chronic Patients within Chronic Disease Hospital “St. Luke” from Bucharest, Romania, over a period of six months, answered the Illness Cognition Questionnaire (ICQ), in order to assess adaptation to the disease (helplessness, acceptance, perceived benefits). RESULTS: Results of the study showed that feelings of helplessness were expressed at a high level in 22.2% patients, medium level in 55.6% cases and low level 22.2%. The feelings of acceptance were the following: 61.1% of patients had a high level, 33.3% of them a medium level, while only 5.6% had a low level of acceptance. Regarding perceived benefits due to the disease, the following results have been obtained: 22.2% had a high level, 77.8% a medium level and no patient reported low level benefit. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that patients diagnosed with prostate cancer adapt well to the disease, accept it and even obtain benefits from it.