Social service counseling in cancer centers certified by the German Cancer Society.

Social workers are an integral part of care provided in cancer centers that are certified according to the requirements of the German Cancer Society. This article reports on the tasks of social workers in German cancer care and on the proportion of patients that receives social service counseling (SSC) in breast, lung, colorectal, skin, gynecological, prostate, pancreas, neurological, and head and neck cancer centers based on data from 367,297 patients treated between 2009 and 2012. The highest proportions of patients (median >75%) are provided with SSC in breast and colorectal cancer centers, whereas the median is below 30% in skin cancer centers. Variation between centers and center types is high.