Living Through Targeted Therapy: Exploring Cancer Patients’ Experiences of Suffering, Meaning, and Clinical Communication
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Abstract
Targeted cancer therapy represents a major advancement in pharmaceutical science, offering patients improved outcomes with fewer systemic side effects compared to conventional chemotherapy. However, limited research has explored how patients psychologically and emotionally experience these therapies within real-world clinical and social contexts. Existing studies often prioritize clinical efficacy while neglecting the lived experiences and personal meanings patients assign to their treatment journeys. This study investigates how cancer patients undergoing targeted therapy experience and interpret the physical, emotional, and existential dimensions of their treatment. Using a descriptive phenomenological approach, this study reveals how patients navigate internal suffering, reconstruct meaning amid vulnerability, and negotiate their autonomy in healthcare encounters. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews with 12 cancer patients at a tertiary hospital and analyzed using Colaizzi’s method to extract essential themes. The analysis identified three core themes: (1) enduring the unseen burden of therapy-related side effects, (2) reconstructing meaning in the face of illness, and (3) navigating patient-provider dynamics in a context of trust and communication. These findings emphasize the need to integrate patient narratives into clinical care models to address emotional and psychosocial dimensions of treatment. By expanding the lens of pharmaceutical research to include subjective experience, this study contributes to a more holistic understanding of targeted therapy and lays the groundwork for future qualitative inquiry into patient-centered cancer care.
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