Helping diagnosed mothers and their adolescent-young adult daughters approach challenging cancer conversations is critical not just because it promotes healthier adjustment, but also because how they talk about breast cancer and disease risk impacts short-and long-term health outcomes. Those findings emerged from a new study led by Carla Fisher, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Advertising associate professor, faculty affiliate in the UF Center for Arts in Medicine and a member of the UF Health Center’s Cancer Population Sciences research program.

Fisher, Amanda Kastrinos, Ph.D. 2021, UFCJC Research Assistant Alana Curley, Mollie Canzona, Nicole Piemonte, Bianca Wolf and Teri Pipe are the co-authors of “Helping Diagnosed Mothers and Their Adolescent-Young Adult Daughters Navigate Challenging Breast Cancer Conversations” published in Cancer Care Research Online, July 2022, Volume 3 – Issue 3.

According to the authors, “The over-arching study aim was to generate findings to integrate into an intervention to enhance diagnosed mothers’ and adolescent-young adult daughters’ communication skills by identifying approaches they find helpful when talking about cancer.”

They add, “Cancer navigators, psychologists, clinical social workers, physicians, and medical family therapists also provide support for navigating difficult family conversations. Findings can be integrated into psycho-oncology clinical practices, which in turn promotes a much needed, family-centered approach to breast cancer care.”

Posted: July 25, 2022
Category: College News, Fisher Lab
Tagged as: Alana Curley, Amanda Kastrinos, Carla Fisher