Future directions in research on consumer-provider communication and adherence to cancer prevention and treatment.

The goal of this paper is to examine emerging issues in consumer-provider communication and patient adherence to cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment, and coping with survivorship. Many factors that have been shown to affect adherence can be supported or hindered by provider-patient communication, including the provider-patient relationship, patients' beliefs, social and cultural norms, family and social support, mood, and behavioral management. Six research questions are posed, and substantive and methodological recommendations are offered for empirical research on the measurement and achievement of patient adherence.