The Conversations About Cancer (CAC) Project: Assessing Feasibility and Audience Impacts From Viewing The Cancer Play

Basic communication research has identified a major social problem: communicating about cancer from diagnosis through death of a loved one. Over the past decade, an award-winning investigation into how family members talk through cancer on the telephone, based on a corpus of 61 phone calls over a period of 13 months, has been transformed into a theatrical production entitled The Cancer Play. All dialogue in the play is drawn from naturally occurring (transcribed) interactions between family members as they navigate their way through the trials, tribulations, hopes, and triumphs of a cancer journey. This dramatic performance explicitly acknowledges the power of the arts as an exceptional learning tool for extending empirical research, exploring ordinary family life, and exposing the often taken-for-granted conceptions of health and illness. In this study, a Phase I STTR project funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), we assess the feasibility of educating and impacting cancer patients, family members, and medical professionals who viewed the play as a live performance and through DVD screenings. Pre- and postperformance questionnaires were administered to solicit audience feedback. Pre-post change scores demonstrate overwhelming and positive impacts for changing opinions about the perceived importance, and attributed significance, of family communication in the midst of cancer. Paired-sample t-tests were conducted on five factor-analyzed indices/indicators-two indices of opinions about cancer and family communication, two indices measuring the importance of key communication activities, and the self-efficacy indicator-and all factors improved significantly (<.001). Informal talkback sessions were also held following the viewings, and selected audience members participated in focus groups. Talkback and focus-group sessions generated equally strong, support responses. Implications of the Phase I study are being applied in Phase II, a currently funded effort to disseminate the play nationally and to more rigorously test its impact on diverse audiences. Future directions for advancing research, education, and training across diverse academic and health care professions are discussed.