Talking Cancer—Cancer Talking: A Linguistic and Thematic Analysis of Patient Narratives

Abstract

To explore “the lived experience” of patients with cancer through narratives, in-depth interviews with 20 patients were conducted in the patients’ homes—“at the kitchen table.” Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed following the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) methodology. Thematic Analysis was used to explore themes in the narratives. Scores on relevant LIWC dimensions of the 20 patients were compared with norm data for respondents without cancer. Patients with cancer scored higher on “anger” and “sadness” (psychologic processes dimension); lower on “insight,” “causes,” and “tentatives” (cognitive processes dimension); and lower on “religion.” Major themes identified from the Thematic Analysis were resilience, fatigue, social relationships, turning inward psychologically, shared decision-making, and psychological support. Narratives of patients with cancer are a source of rich data on how persons with cancer make sense of their illness, its medical management, and its psychological and social consequences. Qualitative methods of data analysis (LIWC; Thematic Analysis) are a highly valuable element in the methodology of exploring patient experience.