Diagnoses, Decisions, and Outcomes: Web Search as Decision Support for Cancer ∗ Michael J. Paul Ryen W. White Eric Horvitz Johns Hopkins University Microsoft Research Microsoft Research 3400 N. Charles Street One Microsoft Way One Microsoft Way Baltimore, MD 21218 Redmond, WA 98052 Redmond, WA 98052
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT the decisions of searchers who show salient signs of having People diagnosed with a serious illness often turn to the Web been recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. We aim to for their rising information needs, especially when decisions characterize and enhance the ability of Web search engines are required. We analyze the search and browsing behavior to provide decision support for different phases of the illness. of searchers who show a surge of interest in prostate cancer. We focus on prostate cancer for several reasons. Prostate Prostate cancer is the most common serious cancer in men cancer is typically slow-growing, leaving patients and physi- and is a leading cause of cancer-related death. Diagnoses cians with time to reflect on the best course of action. There of prostate cancer typically involve reflection and decision is no medical consensus about the best treatment option, as making about treatment based on assessments of preferences the primary options all have similar mortality rates, each and outcomes. We annotated timelines of treatment-related with their own tradeoffs and side effects [24]. The choice queries from nearly 300 searchers with tags indicating differ- of treatments for prostate cancer is therefore particularly ent phases of treatment, including decision making, prepa- sensitive to consideration of patients' preferences about out- ration, and recovery.