What do newly diagnosed cancer patients discuss with survivors?

The Cancer Companion Program at the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center is a peer-to-peer telephone-based program that connects a newly diagnosed cancer patient with a previous cancer patient with the same diagnosis. Similar peer support and telephone-based programs have been studied, and many benefits have been found in previous studies. As such, this study focuses not on program efficacy, but rather aims to understand the topics that newly diagnosed cancer patients discuss with cancer survivors. Participants in this study were 41 newly-diagnosed cancer patients who had requested to be matched with a volunteer cancer companion. Content analysis of the phone call logs demonstrated that patients discussed treatment-related, psychological, and day-to-day concerns. These results are discussed in terms of educating physicians, nurses, and psychosocial cancer care practitioners about the issues which are most important to newly diagnosed cancer patients.