RATIONALE: Studying quality of life in cancer survivors may help determine the long-term effects of breast cancer and may help improve the quality of life for future cancer survivors.

PURPOSE: This clinical trial is studying the quality of life in African-American or Caucasian women survivors of breast cancer.

OBJECTIVES:

• Compare African-American survivors of breast cancer to Caucasian survivors of breast cancer on disease-specific, generic, and global quality of life measures.
• Compare African-American survivors of breast cancer to an age-matched control group of African-American women with no history of breast cancer on these quality of life measures.

OUTLINE: Patients and healthy participants complete a battery of quality of life (QOL) questionnaires over approximately 65 minutes by mail or over the phone, including the Sexual Function Index, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Fatigue, Concerns About Recurrence Scale, and other measures of symptoms/side effects, the RAND Physical Functioning -10 Scale, Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression Scale, assessment of family function/social support, ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale, Reed Spiritual Perspective Scale, assessment of coping, and the Index of Well-being. Demographic, disease, treatment, and comorbidity information is collected using questionnaires and medical chart review.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 195 patients and healthy participants will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Meets 1 of the following criteria:
• African-American or Caucasian breast cancer survivor
• Diagnosed with stage I-III breast cancer between the years of 1995-2003
• Receiving follow up care at the Indiana University Cancer Center (IUCC), the IUCC Northside Clinic, Spring Mill Clinic, or Wishard Memorial Hospital
• Healthy African-American
• Acquaintance of an African-American breast cancer survivor whose age is within five years of that of the patient
• Not known to have breast cancer

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Female

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics