Introduction: Cancer is one of type of chronic diseases. Hope therapy can increase the resilient and life expectancy of cancer patients. The aim of this research is to determine the effectiveness of group based hope- therapy on increasing resilience and hope in life expectancy of patients with breast cancer in Zanjan City.

Methods: The present study was quasi-experimental with pre-test - post-test and control group. In total, 30 women that were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016 in city of Zanjan were randomly selected. Data was collected by demographic questionnaire, “Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale’ and “Schneider‘s Life Expectancy Questionnaire”. The validity and reliability of these instruments had been confirmed. Group hope therapy was conducted in 8 sessions (90 min per session) over one month. Questionnaires were completed in the first and last session. Data was analyzed by SPSS/20.

Results: Analysis show that, the hope therapy by group therapy method increases the resilience (P> 0.001) and life expectancy of breast cancer patients (P>0.001).

Conclusions: While the hope therapy can enhance life expectancy and resilience of cancer patients and their quality of lives, this type of therapy is recommended.