Cancer Ghosting: A Netnographic Exploration of the Oncology Patient Experience

Background: Ghosting, originally associated with online dating, describes the experience of having communication terminated without warning. Increasingly, oncology patients are reporting being “cancer ghosted.” Objective: This paper reports on a comprehensive netnographic study undertaken to explore the phenomenon of cancer ghosting. Methods: This qualitative study of multiple web-based and social media platforms applied the comprehensive netnographic research method described by Kozinets. Through extensive searches of public posts on sites including Twitter (X), Facebook, Reddit, chat rooms, and LinkedIn, as well as numerous blogs, posts were analyzed using netnographic technique and thematic analysis. Results: Investigations into the occurrence of ghosting and its growing prevalence over the past 5 years have provided rich descriptive data as well as recommendations for healthcare provider interventions. Analysis of 149 posts produced themes including cancer stigma, existential crisis, abandonment, meaning making, and cancer community. Conclusions: The netnographic approach allowed for novel insight into cancer ghosting as an impactful psych-oncology experience. The increasing frequency of posts demonstrates that cancer ghosting is an increasing feature of cancer survivorship. Implications for Practice: Recommendations for healthcare professionals include a short tool meant to identify social media use and ghosting. Supporting cancer support group membership as well as the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy may affect quality of life in survivorship. Foundational: This study is innovative because it uses netnography as a central qualitative methodology for exploring patient experience. This study is the first in oncology nursing to explore the phenomenon of cancer ghosting.