Esophageal cancer patients’ information management: cross-cultural differences between Dutch and Italian patients in perceived quality of provided oncological information

Esophageal cancer (EC) is the eight most common cancer worldwide with more than 450,000 new cases every year with the highest incidence in Asia and Africa (1,2). The prognosis remains generally poor, with a 5-year survival rate decreasing from 50% for localized tumors to 4% for metastatic disease (3). Surgical resection is the most valuable treatment but many advances have occurred during the last 20 years especially with neoadjuvant therapies (3). The best clinical approach to EC therefore is a multidisciplinary approach (involving surgeons, oncologists, radiotherapists, endoscopists and radiologists) in order to plan a patient tailored therapy (4). On the other hand, EC remains a relatively rare disease in the western world and, in Western Europe a family doctor will face no more than ten ECs in his/her career. Therefore, patients diagnosed with EC will encounter many physicians that will provide different levels of information about EC and its treatment options with an impact on expectations, illness perception and, in the end, quality of life that can vary from one patient to another even in similar circumstances (5)