A content analysis of emotional concerns expressed at the time of receiving a cancer diagnosis: An observational study of consultations with adolescent and young adult patients and their family members

The content analysis revealed that patients and family members expressed a wide range of emotional concerns. Health care providers tended to respond to the content-aspect of the concerns, but did rarely explicitly acknowledge the affective-aspect of the concerns. The effect of responses to patients' emotional concerns in the important first consultations about the cancer diagnosis and planned treatment should be investigated in future studies.