Background: Assessment of supportive needs is the requirement to plan supportive care
program for cancer patients. The aim of the study: was to highlight the supportive care
needs in relation to psychological distress level among women under treatment for breast
cancer. Subjects & methods: Research design: A cross - sectional descriptive design was
used. Setting: The oncology clinics in Zagazig University Hospitals. Subjects: 200 women
were recruited. Tools of data collection: Three tools were used for data collection: 1)
Demographic data and medical history. 2) The Supportive Care Needs Survey- short form
questionnaire, which covers five domains of needs (physical and daily living, health system
and information, psychological, patient care and support and sexuality domains. 3) Distress
thermometer scale. Results: Results revealed that the highest affected domain was in
physical and daily living domain followed by health system and information. On the other
hand, the lowest domain was in sexual domain. Patients had moderate to severe distress
(74%), younger participants had more unmet needs in all domains and high level of
psychological distress.. Conclusion: A highly statistically significant positive correlation was
found between psychological distress level and total unmet needs. Recommendations:
Further studies are needed for ongoing assessment of patients' needs and their psychological
distress level to ensure monitoring and intervention to meet various needs of patients during
treatment and to confirm this study results.