Grant: Operating Grant

The time period from diagnosis through to the end of treatment is challenging for patients. Patients need information, assistance with decision making, and emotional and social support to help cope with their diagnosis and treatment. The first meeting with the cancer doctor is especially anxiety-provoking for patients who will learn, for the first time, their treatment options and likelihood of being cured. This anxiety causes many patients to have difficulty remembering the important pieces of information that their cancer doctor tells them during this consultation. The main goal of this study is to demonstrate the benefits of giving cancer patients an audio-recording of their first consultation with their cancer doctor. We will include newly diagnosed patients from cancer centres in Winnipeg and Calgary. The types of cancer that will be included in this study are brain and neuroendocrine. Patients with these types of cancer are more likely to have confused thinking, and therefore may have the most to gain from receiving their consultation recordings. The study will include 262 patients, and those who sign consent forms to participate will be assigned by chance to either receive their treatment consultation recording or not. Patients will receive their recording immediately after their consultation, and will be able to listen to the recording at any time either alone, or with family and friends. To figure out whether the consultation recording provides patients with benefits, we will administer some questionnaires to patients at 1 week after the consultation, and again at 3 and 6 months after the consultation. These questionnaires will assess the following patient outcomes: i) anxiety and depression, ii) perception of being informed about the disease and treatment, iii) satisfaction with cancer care, iv) satisfaction with the doctor, and v) the extent to which patients are satisfied with their degree of involvement in treatment decision making.