Over a quarter of a million women will hear the diagnosis of breast cancer every year, and breast cancer will kill about forty thousand women each year. Naturally, when faced with this news, women will variously experience fear, shock, sadness, disbelief or other feelings of psychosocial distress. In Meeting Psychosocial Needs of Women with Breast Cancer, the National Cancer Policy Board of the Institute of Medicine examines the psychological consequences of the cancer experience.