The question of how the relatives and friends of women with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer research illness-related subjects was examined by means of an online questionnaire. The relatives and friends use the internet primarily to inform themselves, but also to convey information further to the sick person. Often, they research for the patient who is not familiar with the medium. The relatives judge the internet as a great help. Medical themes are in the first positions of the item list. Half of the respondents recommend their relatives treatment possibilities. Concerning the therapy we see, that the illness-relevant internet usage leads thus more often to a reinforcement of the decision concerned than to noncompliance. While this interest dominates the net research, within the medical consultation most of the respondents expect attention to psychosocial matters next to the sharing of medical information. However, if they accompany their relatives to medical consultations and want to discuss net information, less than half notice ail interested reaction from the physician and in one third of the respondents there is the predominating impression of the physician being overwhelmed. It is evident that relatives of cancer patients play an important role in the work of no-ending care, but still it is not payed enough attention to this fact in the daily work at the hospital.
