AIM: The aim of this study was to explore what women with recurrent ovarian cancer perceived as important in their communication with the health care team.

METHOD: Interviews were conducted with 12 women at the end of chemotherapy treatment at a department of gynecological oncology in central Sweden. The interviews were subjected to qualitative content analysis.

RESULTS: The findings stress the importance for the health care team to offer each woman the opportunity for support in becoming familiar with the disease. This theme of becoming familiar with the disease is underpinned by four sub-themes: being acknowledged as a unique person, getting help to make sense of information regarding the disease and its treatment, having the opportunity to be involved and to share responsibility, and feeling confident that medical expertise was adequate. Becoming familiar with the disease was expressed as a process of understanding and assimilating the whole new situation. To achieve familiarity, the women needed help from the health care team to make sense of the information they received. They stressed the importance of being able to influence encounters with health professionals, in accordance with their own perspectives. Being acknowledged as a unique person was a prerequisite to achieve familiarity. Also important to the women was having the opportunity to share responsibility for their care and lives with someone from the health care team.

CONCLUSION: Helping women with recurrence of ovarian cancer attain a sense of familiarity with the disease should be an important priority for health care providers.