In Finland, almost 18,000 cancers are diagnosed in men every year. The prevalence of cancer increases with age, and the forecast is that in 15 years, 91 % of new cancer cases will be in the over 75 age group. In doctoral research, Laura Lahti is interested in what kind of meanings cancer has as part of the aging process, what it's like to get old with cancer, and how aging cancer patients themselves interpret cancer as part of their life. Since the interpretations of health, illness and aging can be gendered, attention is paid especially to gender and Lahti studys men with gender-specific cancer. The study focuses on men with prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, and about 5,000 new cases of the disease are diagnosed in Finland each year. The average age of prostate cancer patients in Finland is currently 70 years. The aim of the research is to find out what kind of features prostate cancer gets when the cancer is diagnosed as an aging man.
The research combines a health sociology and social gerontology approach to studying cancer. Men's experiences are approached through narrative approach. The research is carried out using qualitative methods based on interviews and written data. The empirical data of the doctoral research consists of interview data collected in the follow-up setting of the Life-satisfaction after prostate cancer treatments: a follow-up study with interview and survey data -project, interview data of the research project Effect of controlled physical exercises on side effects and physical activity of castration treatment of prostate cancer, and written data collected for the last publication of the doctoral research.
The doctoral research as a whole consists of three sub-publications and a summary chapter. The first publication has been published in Gerontologia journal.