BACKGROUND: Information is vital to cancer patients. Physician-patient 
communication in oncology presents specific challenges. The aim of this study 
was to evaluate self-reported information of cancer patients in ambulatory care 
at a comprehensive cancer centre and examine its possible association with 
patients' demographic and clinical characteristics.
PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study included adult patients with solid tumours 
undergoing chemotherapy at the Institute Jules Bordet's Day Hospital over a 
ten-day period. EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-INFO25 questionnaires were administered. 
Demographic and clinical data were collected. Descriptive and inferential 
statistics were used.
RESULTS: 101 (99%) fully completed the questionnaires. They were mostly Belgian 
(74.3%), female (78.2%), with a mean age of 56.9 ± 12.8 years. The most frequent 
tumour was breast cancer (58.4%). Patients were well-informed about the disease 
and treatments, but presented unmet information domains. The Jules Bordet 
patients desired more information on treatment side effects, long-term outcome, 
nutrition, and recurrence symptoms. Patients on clinical trials reported having 
received less information about their disease and less written information than 
patients outside clinical trials. Higher information levels were associated with 
higher quality of life (QoL) scores and higher patient satisfaction.
CONCLUSION: Patients were satisfied with the information they received and this 
correlated with higher QoL, but they still expressed unmet information wishes. 
Additional studies are required to investigate the quality of the information 
received by patients enrolled in clinical trials.