Prospective randomised clinical trial of providing patients with audiotape recordings of their oesophagogastric cancer consultations.

Objective: To evaluate audiotape-recorded consultations at which a new diagnosis of oesophageal or gastric cancer was given to patients with reference to information retention, psychological outcome and socio-economic deprivation.

Methods: Fifty-eight patients were randomised to receive audiotaped consultations or not. Thirty-one patients received tapes (12 oesophageal and 19 gastric cancers) and were compared with 27 control patients (12 oesophageal and 15 gastric cancers).