Patient-Centered Communication in Cancer Care: Promoting Healing and Reducing Suffering

Patient-Centered Communication in Cancer Care: Promoting Healing and Reducing Suffering

Effective patient-clinician communication is central to the delivery of high-quality care. It becomes even more crucial in the cancer setting where patients have to deal with stress, uncertainty, complex information, and life-altering medical decisions. To encourage and inform future research that would help facilitate the delivery of patient-centered communication between cancer patients/family and the health care delivery team(s) across the cancer care continuum, the Outcomes Research Branch (ORB), in collaboration with the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch (HCIRB), commissioned this monograph, Patient-Centered Communication in Cancer Care: Promoting Healing and Reducing Suffering.
The monograph lays the foundation for future innovative research in the area of patient-centered communication in oncology as well as other illness settings. Highlights include:

• Conceptualization of patient-centered communication into six key functions;
  
• Emphasis on research that examines the relationship between patient-centered communication and patient health outcomes;
  
• Detailed discussion of potential mediating and moderating mechanisms of the association between communication and patient outcomes; and
  
• Identification of specific research priorities that would guide NCI in planning future research initiatives in this important area.

The monograph is provided below in Portable Document Format (PDF). A printed copy can also be obtained at no cost by calling 1-800-4-CANCER or by ordering online from NCI Publications Locator. For non-US shipping addresses, e-mail cisocc@mail.nih.gov.

• Download an informational flyer for the monograph (174 KB)
  
• Download the entire monograph in a single file (1.50 MB)
  
• Download individual chapters:
  • Cover and Title Page (187 KB)
    
  • Table of Contents (36 KB)
    
  • Forward by Robert T. Croyle, Ph.D., Director, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (44 KB)
    
  • Preface by Neeraj K. Arora, Ph.D., Program Director, Patient-centered Care Research (44 KB)
    
  • Acknowledgments (53 KB)
    
  • List of Tables and Figures (32 KB)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  • Chapter 1: A Patient-Centered Approach to Cancer Communication Research (178 KB)
    
  • Chapter 2: A Framework for Patient-Centered Communication in Cancer Care (234 KB)
    
  • Chapter 3: Pathways from Communication to Health Outcomes: Mediators and Moderators (223 KB)
    
  • Chapter 4: Key Communication Tasks and Outcomes: The Cancer Care Continuum (180 KB)
    
  • Chapter 5: Methodological Challenges in Studying Clinical Communication in Cancer Care (123 KB)
    
  • Chapter 6: Summary, Conclusions, and Future Directions (212 KB)
    
  • Appendices (428 KB)
    
  • NCI's Communication Resources (45 KB)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Recommended Citation

Epstein RM, Street RL Jr. Patient-Centered Communication in Cancer Care: Promoting Healing and Reducing Suffering. National Cancer Institute, NIH Publication No. 07-6225. Bethesda, MD, 2007.

Copyright Information

All material in this report is in the public domain and may be reproduced or copied without permission; please use the recommended citation for source attribution.