Cancer communication: status and future directions

Abstract

On November 7, 2005, the directors of the National Cancer Institute's (NCI's) Comprehensive Cancer Centers met to identify ways of accelerating success against cancer using current knowledge. Not surprisingly, cancer communication was identified as a focal point of research that needed to be conducted to extend the benefits of cancer knowledge throughout the population. There were three foci of communication research identified by the directors: (a) research designed to extend awareness of prevention and early detection, (b) research designed to improve the accuracy and usability of cancer science as portrayed in national news media, and (c) research designed to support behavior through individual and community-level interventions. Each of these foci takes on new meaning when considered in the context of a rapidly changing communication environment. Behavioral science must evolve to keep up with these changes and to offer new evidence-based approaches for extending the reach, effectiveness, and efficiency of cancer communication in order to do its part in accelerating successes against the disease.