Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Patient Perspectives on Colorectal Cancer

In 2005, a group of clinical investigators in Houston, headed by Neil Love, MD, began a project to gather information about patients being treated for colorectal cancer, and to disseminate this information to physicians who regularly treat and recommend treatments for colorectal cancer with the hopes of facilitating the complicated process of introducing, sorting through, understanding, and utilizing the myriad options available to patients. They called this project the Research to Practice Colorectal Cancer Patient Education Initiative.

One hundred fifty patients with colorectal cancer were surveyed and answered questions ranging from their initial diagnosis, their participation in clinical trials, recovery from chemotherapy, even patient grading of physicians and patient education needs. The results have been published as a monograph, distributed to physicians, and are being used to further develop educational aids for patients. The goal is to produce an audio/text patient education program designed to provide information and perspectives on critical aspects of chemotherapy for colorectal cancer.

I received the monograph in the mail this week. As I read it I will post comments here.