What do we know about facilitating patient communication in the cancer care setting?

Throughout the cancer diagnosis and treatment period, patients interact with multiple healthcare providers. In order to facilitate these communications, researchers have developed interventions primarily for providers, and, more recently, for patients. The aim of this paper is to conduct a critical examination of a sample of the empirical literature regarding current knowledge about the types of interventions that have been designed to facilitate cancer patients' communication with their healthcare providers. Overall, the empirical literature suggests that some types of patient-based interventions (e.g. prompt sheets, audiotapes, coaching sessions) may be beneficial in specific areas (e.g. increasing the number of questions asked, increased patient satisfaction). However, there are few consistent findings and the outcome measures that have been examined have varied substantially across studies. More controlled studies using carefully chosen outcome variables are needed. Increasing patients' communication skills so that their goals are met has the potential to positively affect the communication process.