Hope and hopelessness in the face of ovarian cancer: perspectives from gynecologists.

BACKGROUND: Effective communication plays a key role in fostering strong relationships between patients and healthcare providers during cancer treatment and care. Women with ovarian cancer live with the illness and disease aspects of the condition, while biomedical knowledge tends to focus on the disease. We aimed to gain an understanding of the patient-provider relationship in ovarian cancer from a gynecologists' perspective. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We collected data using semi-structured interviews and applied a phenomenological approach to data analysis. RESULTS: We conducted individual interviews with nine gynecologists between October 2022 and February 2023. Three distinctive features defined the gynecologists' understanding (1). When interacting with patients, they focused on diagnostic markers and treatment choices, paying more attention to the disease than to holistic well-being (2). The gynecologists' understanding of ovarian cancer was mainly based on medical knowledge rather than on patients' experiences (3). The tragic nature of ovarian cancer led the gynecologists to create emotional distance as a means of self-preservation, while harboring a hope that medical advancements would lead to a cure in the future but acknowledging their feelings of helplessness in treating these patients. CONCLUSION: Gynecologists understand ovarian cancer from a disease perspective of health. Their role is to maintain the biomedical dimension of condition, upholding patients' hope as well as their own for medical advancement throughout the ovarian cancer trajectory. Furthermore, gynecologists understand their role as constrained by a rigid system that limits their ability to best provide holistic care to patients.