Many cancer patients want information about their illness and wish to talk about their problems. A national center information service was launched in March 1997 by the Iranian Center for Breast Cancer to provide information, advice, and emotional support to breast cancer patients, their relatives and the public. The services form Tehran and a female general practitioner (supported by a panel of specialists) respond to inquiries by telephone.
This study reports data from the first six months operation of the service. A "call record form" was filled in after each inquiry on which information was recorded about both the inquirer and the nature of the inquiry.
During the study period 350 telephone calls were recorded. Of these, %97 were females, mostly married (85%) and the mean age was 35 (sd±9.8) years. %84 of inquires were from Tehran, and the remaining %16 from the rest of country. Most callers (n=301, %86) were patients themselves or their relatives were as the remaining 49 (%14) were from the general public. Out of 301 inquiries by patients or relatives only 27 (%9) inquiries were breast cancer related and the rest were about the benign breast diseases. The needs assessment indicated that %45 of callers had problems with information they received, %44 had problems with their treatments and 10% had emotional and social problems. The analysis of inquiries showed that the majority of inquirers (%61) need more information about breast diseases and breast cancer, %29 need counseling about treatment of breast diseases including breast cancer, and %4 need emotional and social support.
The study indicated that the present service has an important role in providing information for patients, their relatives and the general public. However, there is a need to evaluate such a service form their perspectives.