Framing body changes in patient-medical team conversations during treatment trajectories in surgical head and neck oncology

People who undergo surgery for head and neck cancer are often concerned about treatment-related changes in appearance and functional impairments, and report body image difficulties, higher levels of anxiety, and lower quality of life. Communication with health care professionals may impact patients’ experience of body changes, notably due to the differences between how patients and their medical team view the treatment and what aspects they find important to discuss. However, relatively little is known about how patients and providers discuss changes in body appearance and functioning during clinical consultations. This study addresses this question by combining insights from psychosocial oncology research with communication research on framing. The aim is to better understand the process of communication between surgical patients and the interdisciplinary Head and Neck Surgery team around changes in appearance and function, as well as how patients are experiencing such communication during their treatment trajectories. An empirical study of patient-medical team communication was conducted at the head and neck oncology outpatient clinic of a large university-affiliated hospital in the province of Quebec, Canada. Twenty patients participated in this study for a period of six months, and 88 pre-surgical and post-surgical visits were observed and audio or video recorded (54 hours of recorded data). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients before and after the surgery (n=45), as well as with medical team members (n=6) at the end of the study. First, this study reveals the communication patterns that characterize pre-surgical visits: how body changes are discussed in relation to survival and cure, how body changes are established as (not) being a matter of concern, and how different team members may play different roles in discussing body changes with patients. Second, the communication patterns that characterize post-surgical visits are described: how body changes are discussed in relation to cure and physical recovery, how improvement and progress are emphasized in consultations, and how differences between patients’ and providers’ perspectives are resolved in interactions. Interview data complements the analyses, showing the potential positive and negative impacts of these interaction patterns on patients’ experience. Specifically, the analyses reveal how psychosocial concerns can be silenced in clinical interactions. The results of this study contribute to research on patient-health care provider communication by providing insight into how concerns emerge in clinical interactions and how changes in appearance and function are discussed in patients’ visits with different medical team members. These results can be used to inform students’ and professionals’ training by providing guidance on integrated care addressing patients’ needs in both the physical and the psychosocial domain.

Keyphrases: cancer care team, head and neck oncology, interaction analysis, interactional framing theory, patient-provider communication