An examination of characteristics of lung and colon cancer patients participating in a web-based decision support...

Little is known about the characteristics of cancer patients who employ the Internet as a technique to gather information to assist them in their management.

To address this issue, aggregate data from individuals with colon (n=7,543), non-small cell lung (n=24,778) and small cell lung (n=13,817) cancers who provided personal clinical information through participation in a proprietary Web-based decision support program (NexProfiler Treatment Option Tools for Cancer; NexCura, Inc., Seattle, Wash., USA) were evaluated for potential differences between specific patient subgroups.

Examination of a number of objective (e.g., prior therapy) and subjective (e.g., overall health, activity level) parameters failed to reveal any major differences based on sex, geographical location (US vs. non-US) or newly diagnosed versus recurrent disease (non-small cell lung cancer patients). Several notable findings included: (1) overall >65% of colon cancer patients and >70% of lung cancer patients stated that they 'were interested in learning about clinical trials'; (2) 65-70% of patients with recurrent non-small cell lung cancer stated that their 'general health was good', while >60% noted they had symptoms and >50% declared their activity level to be essentially 'normal'; (3) while almost 80% of small cell lung cancer patients noted symptoms, >60% stated their activity level was 'normal'.

These data suggest that the population of patients who seek information from Web-based decision support programs share a number of relevant clinical features, yet they appear to represent a unique subset among all individuals with malignant disease. It will be important for oncologists to more fully understand the objectives of this population in order to assist such patients (and their families) in their use of this remarkably powerful, but essentially unregulated, technology.