Contribution of a preliminary socio-anthropological survey to the development of a therapeutic patient education programme for patients receiving oral chemotherapy

Introduction: For a long time patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy were ’captive’, and were considered as passive during the administration of their treatment. The development of oral treatments over the last decade has considerably changed this situation. However, very little is known about the behaviour of the patients and the physicians in this new setting. Our team carried out a social anthropological survey on patients who were autonomous in the management of their oral chemotherapy, before developing a therapeutic patient educational programme. Objectives: The objective of the survey was to identify the mental representations and behaviour of patients and prescribing oncologists. Methods: The survey included 42 patients receiving oral chemotherapy and 10 oncologists from two cancer centres in the Rhône-Alpes region in France between January and March 2007. Different qualitative study methods were used: repeated focus groups and individual face-to-face or telephone interviews. Results and discussion: The results of this survey were used to develop the objectives for a therapeutic educational programme. The way patients managed their oral chemotherapy was found to be linked to their beliefs about the treatment efficacy and toxicity. The structure and contents of the educational sessions were adapted to take into consideration the identified representation