Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 8, 2025

Therapy Testing in a Spheroid-based 3D Cell Culture Model for Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma
Published on: April 20, 2018
Personal Social Networks and Care-Seeking for Head and Neck Cancer: A Qualitative Study
Sana Batool1,2, Elisabeth E Hansen1,3,4, Rosh K V Sethi1,3
1Department of Surgery, Center for Surgery and Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
Objectives:
To investigate the role of patients' personal social networks (SNs) in accessing head and neck cancer (HNC) care through patients' and health care workers' (HCWs) perspectives.
Study Design:
Qualitative study.
Setting:
Tertiary HNC centers at 2 academic medical centers, including 1 safety net hospital.
Methods:
Patients with newly diagnosed HNC, and HCWs caring for HNC patients, aged ≥18 years were recruited between June 2022 and July 2023. Semistructured interviews were conducted with both patients and HCWs. Inductive and deductive thematic analysis was performed with 2 coders (κ = 0.82) to analyze the data.
Results:
The study included 72 participants: 42 patients (mean age 57 years, 64% female, 81% white), and 30 HCWs (mean age 42 years, 77% female, 83% white). Four themes emerged: (1) Patients' SNs facilitate care through various forms of support, (2) patients may hesitate to seek help from their networks, (3) obligations toward SNs may act as barriers to seeking care, and (4) the SN composition and dedication influence care-seeking.
Conclusion:
Personal SNs play a vital role in prompting early care-seeking among HNC patients. SN-based interventions could enhance care and improve outcomes for HNC patients.
Related Concept Videos
Nursing Ethical Principles II
Consider the following scenario, which illustrates how these principles are applied in the care of Mr. John, a fifty-year-old teacher diagnosed with metastatic liver cancer.
Initially, Mr. John's...
Techniques of therapeutic communication I: Active Listening, Sharing Observations, Validation, and Using Touch
Therapeutic communication is not the same as social interaction. Social interaction has no goal or purpose and consists of casual information sharing, whereas therapeutic communication has a plan or purpose for the conversation. Therapeutic...
Relationship Formation
Veins of Head and Neck
On the other hand, the vertebral veins, unlike their arterial counterparts, are not primarily responsible for brain drainage. Instead, they drain the cervical vertebrae, spinal cord, and some small...
Cancer Survival Analysis
Stress Prevention and Stress Management Techniques V

