"Cancer Is Not Just about a Disease": the Experience of Breast Cancer in the Light of Patients' Metaphors

The aim of this study is to better understand the experience of breast cancer through the analysis of the metaphors in the narratives of women with breast cancer. The blogs of two women were selected and processed according to an interpretative phenomenological analysis. This analysis highlights three metaphors in light of which these women seemed to understand their experience: the body as a medical battlefield, the fragmented body, and the cancer journey. These findings underline the violent changes in the boundaries of the body and the subject that can occur during cancer treatment, as well as the need to integrate this experience to one's existence, instead of fighting it. This study also addresses the relationship between metaphors, meaning, and the experience of cancer.