Three professors in the University School of Nursing are currently conducting research regarding the connection between breast cancer in women and abusive intimate relationships.
The professors are "really looking for a better description of how abuse effects breast cancer and breast cancer treatments, and how treatment affects relationships," said Nursing School Prof. Barbara Parker, who is the primary investigator in the research.
Nursing School Professors Richard Steeves and Kathryn Laughon also are co-investigators.
"We know that 10 percent of women are living with violence, either mental or physical," Parker said.
Additionally, according to statistics compiled by the American Cancer Society, 13 percent of women develop invasive breast cancer, with 211,240 new cases of breast cancer in the United States this year.
"It's very prevalent, but not talked about very often," said Laura Baum, clinical psychologist at the University Cancer Center.
According to Parker and Steeves, virtually no research exists concerning women who suffer from cancer and are in abusive relationships.
"It's such a mystery," Steeves said.
There exists a large body of academic literature, some 200 papers, concerning men whose spouses have breast cancer, what those men can do to support their wives and what health care and social workers can do to support spouses of women with cancer, among other topics, Steeves said.
All of the papers seem to assume that the spouse or boyfriend always wants the best for his wife or girlfriend, when a large percentage of women suffering from cancer may experience spousal abuse as well, Steeves said.
It has not yet been determined why there is so little research into instances of spousal abuse and breast cancer, but the controversial and uncomfortable nature of domestic violence may have deterred researchers from examining the coincidence of spousal abuse and breast cancer, Parker said.
According to Steeves, who has been researching breast cancer in women for several years, seeing women suffering form breast cancer arouses the sympathy of the practitioner or researcher.
"We just don't want to think that somebody is abusing" the woman, he said.
Women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer could be restricted by their spouses from social services and medical attention that is necessary to their recovery, Baum said.
Though numerous support services for women suffering from breast cancer exist, such as the University Cancer Center, and for community support services for women in abusive relationships, no program addresses both issues simultaneously, Steeves said.
The study, which began this summer, is a qualitative study that focuses on interviews with women who are suffering from or have been treated for breast cancer and find themselves in abusive intimate relationships, Steeves said.
Any woman in these circumstances is eligible to participate in this study and can contact the researchers though the ongoing research link on the School of Nursing Web site, Steeves added.
The study will continue until next summer, when Parker, Steeves and Laughon hope to receive additional funding to broaden the scope of the study to the national level, Steeves said.
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