Survival chances and psychological aspects of quality of life in patients with localized early stage breast cancer

Background:The present analysis focuses on the long term psychological reactions to early stage breast cancer. Two hypotheses were formulated. The first hypothesis draws a direct link between tumour size/survival chances and Quality of life (QoL): The better the survival chances, the better QoL (‘biological danger model’). The second hypothesis assumes that localized early breast cancer has excellent prognosis (>90% five year survival rate), and that therefore QoL differences between various forms of early breast cancer should be minimal (‘medico-pragmatic model’).