Understanding Body Image in Young Cancer Patients: What Teens and Young Adults Think

A cancer diagnosis can really shake up a teen or young adult's life, affecting how they see themselves and their body. This study aims to create a new and reliable way to measure how these patients feel about their bodies. The research team talked to 25 teens and young adults with cancer, making sure to include different education levels, genders, treatment stages, and cancer types. They started by coming up with possible questions, checking if they could be easily understood and read, and then tested them with these patients. Most patients found the questions easy to answer and said they captured their real experiences. But three questions were too hard to understand, so they were removed. This study shows that there's a need for better tools to understand body image issues in young cancer patients. The next step is to test these questions on a larger scale to make sure they're good to use. In the end, this work could help create ways to support young cancer patients and help them feel better about their bodies during treatment and recovery.