Hypothesis Generation for Childhood Cancer Communication Research

Secondary analysis of existing qualitative datasets offers an opportunity to efficiently use these difficult-to-collect data to generate hypotheses for future research and expand understanding of the phenomena under study. We conducted a retrospective interpretation of two qualitative datasets regarding childhood cancer treatment decision making to elaborate themes regarding parents’ cancer communication (information sharing and involvement of their children in treatment decision making) that were not fully developed in the original analyses. We identified broad variability in parents’ cancer communication that was not entirely dependent upon the age of their ill child. We were able to generate multiple hypotheses to help guide our future research.