Informal carers in cancer contexts.

This paper considers some of the challenges involved in studying informal carers in cancer contexts. It reviews current knowledge by examining, first, the dominant psycho-oncological research tradition that focuses on psychological distress among carers and, second, the more recent sociologically informed body of work examining what carers actually do and the contribution that they make to patient care. The authors suggest that this second sociologically informed approach offers an important counter-weight to the psycho-oncological perspective. The developing research agenda for a sociology of cancer caring is briefly outlined.