The dual adjustment to being a cancer patient and an immigrant involves major changes in life and might be a severe experience. This study set out to describe the experience of women who have come to Israel from the former Soviet Union and are coping with ovarian cancer. It focused on illness narratives as presented by 8 patients with cancer at stage III. Our findings indicated that the dual process might have different implications according to the meaning attributed by the patient to the illness situation. Viewing the illness as one more burden among other difficulties, such as language barrier, was a prism through which patients experienced their vulnerability in coping with the illness. Alongside a helplessness pattern, we found indications of interviewees' perceiving advantages in their status as immigrant cancer patients, by dealing with that problem alongside other difficulties. They showed a "fighting spirit" in coping with the illness. Immigration can have a moderating effect on patients' experiences, and the 2 stressors do not necessarily accumulate. Our findings indicate that patients' meaning to the illness experience was a "litmus test," which indicated the way patients would describe their coping stages. This may have potential as a clinical marker of psychological vulnerability. Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Ovarian cancer immigrants narrative

personal experience vulnerable population immigrant helplessness cancer patient Israel psychological aspect human immigration middle aged Stress, Psychological mental stress coping behavior health status priority journal Aged USSR Time Factors Health Surveys cancer staging language qualitative research interview Humans Emigrants and Immigrants female Aged, 80 and over stress risk factor Risk Factors verbal communication clinical article Narration ovary cancer Article ovary tumor adult migration Emigration and Immigration Ovarian Neoplasms time health survey