University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
J Health Commun. 2009;14 Suppl 1:76-84. doi: 10.1080/10810730902806844.
The family is often the primary support unit for the cancer patient. We are beginning to understand the impact of a cancer diagnosis on the family, but we are still far from understanding the complex process of how and why information is communicated within families during and after a cancer diagnosis. As survival rates increase and treatments become more complex, understanding how to improve communication processes within the family will become even more vital to supporting families and improving patient outcomes. In this article, we present the results of a 2-hour working group convened during a cancer communications workshop held at the 2008 Society of Behavioral Medicine meeting. During the session, an interdisciplinary group of investigators met and discussed the current state of the science with respect to familial communication during the cancer experience. We focused our discussion on four general areas: current state of the research, theoretical perspectives, methodological perspectives, and areas for future research and intervention in order to understand family communication in this context. Currently, most research has focused on couples and caregivers, mainly in the context of breast cancer. More research is needed into a wider array of cancers and expanding our theoretical foundations into understanding communication between other family members and approaching the family as a unit. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for three content areas to focus future research and intervention development efforts, namely, (1) familial life course, (2) technological advances, and (3) changing structure of the family.
家庭通常是癌症患者的主要支持单位。我们开始了解癌症诊断对家庭的影响，但我们仍远未了解在癌症诊断期间和之后，信息在家庭内部是如何以及为何进行交流的复杂过程。随着生存率的提高和治疗变得更加复杂，了解如何改善家庭内部的沟通流程将变得更加重要，这有助于支持家庭并改善患者的预后。在本文中，我们介绍了在 2008 年行为医学会议上举行的癌症沟通研讨会期间召开的为期 2 小时的工作组的结果。在会议期间，一组跨学科的研究人员聚集在一起，讨论了癌症经历中家庭沟通方面的科学现状。我们将讨论重点放在四个一般领域：研究现状、理论观点、方法学观点以及未来研究和干预领域，以便在这种背景下理解家庭沟通。目前，大多数研究都集中在夫妻和照顾者身上，主要是在乳腺癌的背景下。需要对更多类型的癌症进行更多研究，并扩大我们的理论基础，以了解其他家庭成员之间的沟通，并将家庭作为一个整体来处理。最后，我们提出了三个重点关注领域的建议，以集中未来的研究和干预发展工作，即（1）家庭生命周期，（2）技术进步，以及（3）家庭结构的变化。
