Cancer as a disease exists as a global health concern. Among all types, cancer of the breasts was noted as one of the most common in the Philippines. Narrow focus has been attributed in understanding the communication experiences of patients and their spouses from the time of diagnosis to post treatment. Employing the descriptive phenomenological inquiry, the purpose of this study was to explore breast cancer patients and their spouses' lived experiences of their communication as a couple from their own frame of reference during the time of diagnosis and post treatment. Examining individual accounts of five (5) couples from an in depth qualitative interviews and following Colaizzi's method of data analysis, three main themes surfaced as similar among the participants: (a) Breaking the news (b) Hearing the Sound of Silence (c) Keeping the Faith. The three emerging themes reflect the couple's communication challenges during breast cancer illness and generated a continuum of varying emotions. The communication of couples during cancer was associated with great effort to find ways to build hope, stay together and found meaning and purpose to continue supporting each other. The couples in the study embraced cancer and brought them closer together.

Human ; Male ; Female ; Breast Neoplasms ; Breast ; Diagnosis ; Communication