Healing Choices for Women with Breast Cancer

If yes, then you know that women with breast cancer often have several choices of treatment to discuss with their doctors. Healing Choices for Women with Breast Cancer is a study designed especially for women who have been recently diagnosed with breast cancer. During this time, many women have concerns and questions about the disease, its treatment, potential side effects, and the pros and cons of each treatment choice. Our goal with the Healing Choices study is to offer information to assist patients in making informed treatment decisions.

A person might be eligible for the study if she has been recently diagnosed with breast cancer and has not yet started treatment. Eligible study participants will be randomly assigned (like the flip of a coin) to receive one of two sources of information. A person only need to call the CIS at 1‑866‑258‑7981 and agree to participate in order to receive either:

• (1) A personalized conversation with a trained Cancer Information Specialist and personalized reading material from the National Cancer Institute for women with breast cancer. These reading materials include information about breast cancer, treatment options and their side effects, and treatments options pros and cons.
• OR
• (2) Everything above and a Healing Choices CD along with access to a website containing interactive, multimedia versions of the National Cancer Institute information.

In order to evaluate the added value of a multimedia program to usual CIS service (telephone call and print materials), we will conduct follow-up surveys twice by phone after participants receive the materials.

As a partner in cancer care, you have the opportunity to make an important contribution to newly diagnosed women with cancer by directing them to the Cancer Information Service at 1‑866‑258‑7981 to learn more about this study.