NCI explains blogging

"Cancer Blogs: A New Way for Patients to Communicate" is a topic in the NCI Cancer Bulletin, and it explains what blogs are in its July 12 issue.

The story says, "Blogs provide the people who write them (also known as "bloggers") with a platform for sharing their thoughts and experiences with others. Dr. Bradford W. Hesse, acting chief of NCI’s Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch, notes that 7 percent of Web users in the United States say they have created blogs."

An excerpt from the Bulletin story includes: "’June 4, 2005. The good, the bad, and the wonderful. The day after returning from our wonderful weekend in Grand Rapids, Michigan, I was feeling rather painfully bloated, but nonetheless decided that we would go as scheduled to a dear friend’s house for dinner. We enjoyed a wonderful evening of gourmet food, fine wine, and lots of fun, but on returning home, I could sense that I was in trouble…As a result I spent all of Wednesday in the ER getting poked and scanned.’"

"This day in the life of a cancer patient was written by NCI researcher Dr. Anita Roberts in her blog (short for "Web log"), an online tool she adopted after being diagnosed with gastric cancer in March 2004. Like other cancer patients and survivors, Dr. Roberts uses her blog to communicate ‘how I’m doing, and what I’m thinking and feeling as I work through this difficult, and at times surreal, transition in my life.’"