title: "I'm Still Here": Resilience Among Older Survivors of Breast Cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cancer presents a severe adversity that calls on intrinsic strength factors such as resilience. Breast cancer is especially common among older women. Understanding the interaction between the mechanisms of resilience and the psychosocial impact of cancer requires consideration of developmental age.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This research explores resilience from the point of view of older women who recently completed treatment for early-stage breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Constructivist grounded theory directed data collection and analysis of 31 personal, semistructured interviews with 18 women aged 70 to 94 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Faced with overcoming the adversity of a first cancer experience, participants rebounded and restored balance to their lives with a sense that they did the work of managing cancer with self-efficacy and autonomy. Resilience was evidenced as a multidimensional process containing a natural interaction of attributes. Self-reliance, optimism, and persevering were embedded in human interconnectedness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The process of cancer survivorship was positioned in the larger picture of the joys and hardships of having lived a long life. The core self continued through these changing times, connecting the past, present, and anticipated future, as exemplified by "I'm still here." Regaining balance required tenacity, pragmatism, and dedication to do the work that needed to be done to treat cancer and move on with life.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Resilience is a valuable resource in strength-based approaches in healthcare. Practical examples for clinicians who follow a strength-based approach to promote adaptation for the continuing challenges of breast cancer survivorship among older women include acknowledging unique individual expressions of resilience. Gero-oncology is a salient field for multidisciplinary teams who seek to study resilience.
authors: Author Affiliation: School of Nursing, University of California, Los Angeles.
authors: Huibrie C
authors: HC
authors: Pieters
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D036301:Qualitative Research; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data