Belichaamde ervaringen van patiënten met ernstige chronische vermoeidheid na kanker

Embodied experiences of patients with severe chronic fatigue after cancer. An interpretive phenomenological study This article presents a phenomenological study on embodied experiences based on interviews with 25 patients with severe chronic cancer-related fatigue (CCRF). Insight into the patient’s perspective can help to facilitate personalized treatment in CCRF. Theoretically resorting to philosophical phenomenology, we explored embodied experiences of living with CCRF. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, we identified four superordinate themes: (1) Worn out; (2) Diminishment of one’s ‘I can’; (3) Socially invisible objectification of the body; and (4) Restoring one’s ‘I can’. For clinical practice, these results suggest that focusing on the body and restoring one’s ‘I can’ could be helpful during treatment of CCRF. Future research should focus on measuring individual patterns of CCRF symptoms in order to personalize treatment.