title: Understanding topics and sentiment in an online cancer survivor community.
abstract: Online cancer communities help members support one another, provide new perspectives about living with cancer, normalize experiences, and reduce isolation. The American Cancer Society's 166000-member Cancer Survivors Network (CSN) is the largest online peer support community for cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers. Sentiment analysis and topic modeling were applied to CSN breast and colorectal cancer discussion posts from 2005 to 2010 to examine how sentiment change of thread initiators, a measure of social support, varies by discussion topic. The support provided in CSN is highest for medical, lifestyle, and treatment issues. Threads related to 1) treatments and side effects, surgery, mastectomy and reconstruction, and decision making for breast cancer, 2) lung scans, and 3) treatment drugs in colon cancer initiate with high negative sentiment and produce high average sentiment change. Using text mining tools to assess sentiment, sentiment change, and thread topics provides new insights that community managers can use to facilitate member interactions and enhance support outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Intramural Research Department, American Cancer Society Corporate Center, 250 Williams St NW, Atlanta, GA 30303. kenneth.portier@cancer.org.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Portier
authors.forename: Greta E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Greer
authors.forename: Lior
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Rokach
authors.forename: Nir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ofek
authors.forename: Yafei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Prakhar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Biyani
authors.forename: Mo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Siddhartha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Banerjee
authors.forename: Kang
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Prasenjit
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mitra
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yen
mesh_terms: D000570:American Cancer Society; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012657:Self-Help Groups; D061108:Social Media; D012944:Social Support; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D014481:United States