A Research Article Assessing Social Media Activity Between 2016 and 2018 Relating to the Impact of Metastases in Prostate Cancer on Patients and Caregivers

Abstract

About 15% of all cancer diagnoses in western Europe are for prostate cancer, and many cancer patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals communicate over social media to discuss disease, treatments, side effects, concerns, and support. Social media listening can help identify unmet needs and fill gaps in patient treatment pathways. The authors wanted to understand the topics discussed, emotional tonality and sentiment of conversations, and specific behaviours exhibited. For this study, relevant mentions of prostate cancer were harvested using approved search syntax with social media listening technology. A representative sample across market datasets was used to uncover in-depth insights regarding emotions, key topics, perception, and behaviours, followed by an analysis of the qualitative aspects of the conversation to highlight emotions and behaviours related to the authors’ research objectives. About a quarter of the conversations were related to metastatic cancer, and non-metastatic cancer. Peaks coincided with social movements, such as ‘Movember’ and World Cancer Day. Most conversations about prostate cancer, whether metastatic or not, were driven by anxiety, fear, and worry. Throughout the patient journey, there was an underlying dread of disease progression, with peaks and troughs in emotion coinciding with diagnosis, metastases, treatment, and treatment failure. Patients often felt that they were left by their physicians to make their own decisions regarding treatment and used social media to communicate with their peers and caregivers to gain information. Via social media, patients shared information about disease status, treatment options, side effects, and quality of life, while offering each other emotional support.