Faith, hope, and charity: an in-depth interview study of cancer patients' information needs and information-seeking behavior

Objective To explore why cancer patients do not want or seek information ab out their condition beyond chat volunteered by their physicians at times du ring their illness. Design Qualitative study based on in-depth interviews. Setting Outpatient oncology clinics at a London cancer center. Participants 17 patients with cancer diagnosed in previous 6 months. Main outcome measures Analysis of patients' narratives to identify key them es and categories. Results While all patients wanted basic information on diagnosis and treatm ent, not all wanted further information at all stages of their illness. Thr ee overarching attitudes to their management of cancer limited patients' de sire for and subsequent efforts to obtain further information: faith, hope, and charity. Faith in their doctors medical expertise precluded the need f or patients to seek further information themselves. Hope was essential for patients to carry on with life as normal and could be maintained through si lence and avoiding information, especially too detailed or "unsafe" informa tion. Charity to fellow patients, especially those seen as more needy than themselves, was expressed in the recognition that scarce resources-includin g information and explanations-had to be shared and meant chat limited info rmation was accepted as inevitable. Conclusions Cancer patients' attitudes to cancer and their strategies For c oping with their illness can constrain their wish for information and their efforts to obtain it. In developing recommendations, the government's canc er information strategy should attend to variations in patients' desires fo r information and the reasons for them.