Online information as a decision making aid for cancer patients: recommendations from the Eurocancercoms project.

A pan-European survey was conducted under the auspices of the FP7 Eurocancercoms project during the period September 2010-March 2011. It was designed to broaden public policy understanding of patients' specific needs when seeking online cancer information and aimed to identify gaps in the online cancer information provision across Europe. In this paper we describe the methodology and main findings of the Tenovus survey, and draw some recommendations on the use of online information as a decision making aid for cancer patients and their families, namely: (1) transparency and accountability of the sources of information presented online; (2) accreditation of information by different recognised forms of authority and expertise, i.