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The study explored these factors among adolescents receiving care at a sub-Saharan African health facility in Western Uganda, aiming to support the design of tailored interventions. A qualitative approach was used, generating themes inductively to reflect how diagnosis-related beliefs evolve and how lived experiences influence coping and engagement with care.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":35,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/healthcare/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/adolescents-perceptions-and-lived-experiences-of-cancer-patient-hood-a-qualitative-study/359099/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/adolescents-perceptions-and-lived-experiences-of-cancer-patient-hood-a-qualitative-study/359099.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Ophelia","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-01","2026-09-23",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",12,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What was the purpose of this qualitative study?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"To explore adolescents’ perceptions and lived experiences regarding their cancer diagnosis in order to inform tailored interventions.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How was the study conducted and who participated?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"It was conducted from July 2022 to December 2022 at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, using in-depth interviews with 30 adolescents aged 10–17 diagnosed with cancer.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"What kinds of experiences did participants report?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"Negative experiences included body disfigurement, social challenges, emotional distress, physical pain, and interrupted education, while positive experiences included symptom improvement and support from health workers and family.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},359099,1790472729,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":34,"category_name":35,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":44,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},7971461741311,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/74000253aff267980c6?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1779345379180704826","Akambasisa etal. BMC Cancer (2026) 26:375 BMC Cancer  \n[https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-026-15747-3](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-026-15747-3)  \nRESEARCH Open Access  \nAdolescents’ perceptions   \nand lived experiences of cancer patient-hood: a qualitative study  \nMercy Akambasisa 1*, Elizabeth Kemigisha2,6, Kendall Carpenter3, Godfrey Zari Rukundo4 and Barnabas Atwiine 1,5  \nAbstract  \nBackground Adolescents’ perceptions and lived experiences regarding their cancer diagnosis significantly influence their quality of life and treatment adherence. To inform the formulation of tailored interventions, we explored these factors among adolescents receiving care at a sub-Saharan African health facility in Western Uganda.  \nMethods We conducted a qualitative study from July 2022 to December 2022 at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital in western Uganda. In-depth interviews were held with 30 adolescents aged 10–17 years who had been diagnosed with cancer. NVivo 12 software was used to develop a codebook and coding framework to generate themes inductively emerging from the data that aligned with the study objectives. Ethical approval was obtained from the Research and Ethics Committee of Mbarara University of Science and Technology.  \nResults Participants had a median age of 13.5 years; 19 were male. The diagnoses included leukemia (n = 13), lymphoma (n = 10), and solid tumors (n = 7) . Initial perceptions regarding their diagnosis were predominantly negative but improved over time as they received information and improved on treatment. Perceptions were poorer among those who responded poorly to treatment and those who had had extremely negative experiences. Negative experiences included body disfigurement, social challenges, emotional distress, physical pain, and interrupted education. Positive experiences included improvement in symptoms and support from health workers and their families.  \nConclusion Adolescents initially exhibit poor perceptions towards their cancer diagnosis, which tend to improve with clinical improvement on treatment and support. Their experiences and perceptions are mixed, highlighting the need for specialized/ tailored education and counselling services to address knowledge gaps obtained from the research findings, and hence improve overall care outcomes among the study population.  \nKeywords Cancer, Adolescents, Pediatric, Perceptions, Experiences  \n*Correspondence:  \nMercy Akambasisa  \n[akambasisa@gmail.com](akambasisa@gmail.com)  \n1Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara City, Uganda  \n2Faculty of Interdisciplinary Studies, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara City, Uganda  \n3Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA  \n4Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada  \n5Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Pediatric Cancer and Hematology Unit, Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, Mbarara City, Uganda  \n6Department of Health and Well-being, Africa Population and Health Research Center, Nairobi City, Kenya  \n© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will","cbCaiqhgknyaMVCP","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiqhgknyaMVCP","pdf",1614053,"English","# Abstract\n# Methods\n# Results\n# Conclusion\n# Keywords\n# Introduction","[{\"question\":\"What was the purpose of this qualitative study?\",\"answer\":\"To explore adolescents’ perceptions and lived experiences regarding their cancer diagnosis in order to inform tailored interventions.\"},{\"question\":\"How was the study conducted and who participated?\",\"answer\":\"It was conducted from July 2022 to December 2022 at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, using in-depth interviews with 30 adolescents aged 10–17 diagnosed with cancer.\"},{\"question\":\"What kinds of experiences did participants report?\",\"answer\":\"Negative experiences included body disfigurement, social challenges, emotional distress, physical pain, and interrupted education, while positive experiences included symptom improvement and support from health workers and family.\"}]","Adolescents’ perceptions and lived experiences of cancer patient-hood: a qualitative study | PDF",1790136111,23]