• Mayara Goulart de Camargos, Paiva Bianca Sakamoto Ribeiro BSR Health-Related Quality of Life Research Group (GPQual), Learning and Research Institute, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos, São Paulo, , de Almeida Carla Simone Leite CSL Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Santa Catarina, Joinville, Santa Catarina, Brazil., and Carlos Eduardo Paiva.
• Clinical Hospital of the Federal University of Triângulo Mineiro (UFTM), Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil; Health-Related Quality of Life Research Group (GPQual), Learning and Research Institute, Barretos Cancer Hospital, Barretos, São Paulo, Brazil.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2019 Sep 1; 58 (3): 417-426.e4.

ContextAfter cancer diagnosis, personal value priorities may change in a way that would transform such values and how life is perceived by cancer patients and their caregivers, including happiness and its pursuit.ObjectivesThe objective of the study was to analyze and compare what cancer patients, informal caregivers, and healthy population believe that would make them happy.MethodsA qualitative content analysis was performed on the responses to a single question: "What is missing for you to be happy?" Narratives of cancer patients (n = 242, face-to-face interview), informal caregivers (n = 125, face-to-face interview), and healthy participants (n = 1,671, recruited through social media, online survey) were analyzed. Word clouds were created for each group of participants. Contents were identified and frequencies were compared among participants by means of chi-square and Fisher's exact tests.ResultsOverall, participants were pursuing better health (n = 288, 14.1%), better interpersonal relationships (n = 456, 22.4%), money (n = 412, 20.2%), and work-related aspects (n = 481, 23.6%). Cancer patients and informal caregivers sought better health and cure more often than when compared to healthy people (P < 0.001). Among cancer patients, survivors' profile tended to be similar to that of the healthy population concerning what they need to be happy. Unexpectedly, "cure" (22.7%) was more frequent among participants with incurable cancer.ConclusionRegardless of the group they were in, participants sought happiness in what they considered to be important to their lives, but it was something they did not have at the time of the interview. Psychoeducational and cognitive-behavioral strategies focused on how to deal with life expectations among people facing cancer are awaited.Copyright © 2019 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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