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We aimed to examine how women construct their experiences of chemotherapy treatment for ovarian cancer. Through semistructured interviews, we explored the accounts of 18 Australian women about their experiences within a broader cultural imperative—or discourse—to “think positively.” By applying a critical realist lens to the analysis, we identified two discursive themes that shaped women’s accounts. The “feeling different and managing support” theme highlights the identity challenges women faced because of the lack of formal support for ovarian cancer. Conversely, the theme “women’s reconstructions of difficult experiences” illustrates the imperative for women to present a positive story as a way of restoring their position of a lucky and stoic survivor. Such speaking served to mask some of the underlying difficulties that were part of these women’s experiences. Health care professionals need to consider looking for the hidden stories of vulnerability that lie beneath the triumphant ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experiences of cancer are enmeshed with cultural understandings and social discourses around responsibility and causation. A cancer diagnosis can raise questions about its causation -- including the role of the individual -- whereas the disease and its treatment provide various social markers of illness. We present a sociological study of 81 women's accounts of living with cancer, with a focus on how women interpret their illness, in light of their interpersonal interactions and accounts of social relations. Our analysis reveals women's experiences of cancer diagnosis and treatment, the varied sociocultural meanings of cancer and the responses it elicits, the presence of moral assessments within everyday interactions, and the implications for the support and care they receive. We argue that the experience of cancer should be seen as intimately interwoven with its social reception and cultural sense-making practices, including normative constructs which promote ideas about (in)justice, responsibilization, and shame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explored how people negotiate, and respond to, identity transitions following a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. Interviews with 19 people with pancreatic cancer were analysed using thematic discourse analysis. While discursively negotiating two transitions, ‘moving from healthy to ill’ and ‘moving from active treatment to end-of-life care’, participants positioned themselves as ‘in control’, ‘optimistic’ and managing their health and illness. In the absence of other discourses or models of life post-cancer, many people draw on the promise of survival. Moving away from ‘survivorship’ may assist people with advanced cancer to make sense of their lives in a short timeframe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]