Table 4.

Key Theme 1C – Emotional triggers by cancer type

	Illustrative quotations	Study ID, gender
Colorectal Cancer	“Feeling like I was not in control. It reminded me of the experience of being molested as a child and not being in control of the situation.”	32, Male
	“I feel shame with some doctors when I have to be undressed and probed by them.”	31, Male
	“The weakness. It sounds silly but I felt helpless just like when I did when it all happened.”	284, Female
Gynecological Cancer	“The most difficult part of treatment was the feeling of not being in control, of being helpless in the face of something bigger and stronger than I was. I felt, once again, that I was powerless and that I wasn’t controlling my destiny, that the cancer was.”	247, Female
	“The scary emotions I had during treatment reminded me of childhood abuse.”	287, Female
Breast Cancer	“The most difficult part is trusting someone else on how to treat my body. After my abuse, I always made it a point that me and me alone should have the final decision on what to do with my body. Putting that trust in someone else was difficult.”	69, Female
	“The lack of control you feel of your body and decisions. Cancer takes over just like sexual abuse takes over your feeling of control.”	78, Female
	“I think the most difficult part was trusting my body and my health to people I didn’t know and relying on them not to hurt me. I was going into a situation that I’d never been in before, and I had to depend on strangers to help me. I couldn’t even trust people close to me not to do me physical harm.”	105, Female
	“Feeling a lack of control over my body and life. A violation.”	258, Female
Skin Cancer	“Feeling very vulnerable, and that I had no control over the sickness, it took me back to the vulnerable spot I was in when I was sexually abused.”	56, Male
	“The only correlation I can make is that I once again felt like I couldn’t control myself/my body and that it was entirely up to someone else to be in charge of my fate.”	135, Male