Can a Chatbot be Useful in Childhood Cancer Survivorship? Development of a Chatbot for Survivors of Childhood Cancer

This study introduces an informational and empathetic chatbot for childhood cancer survivors. As the survival rates for childhood cancer around the world have increased, survivors often face various psychosocial challenges during and after cancer treatment. However, they rarely seek support from psychosocial professionals due to the low availability of resources and stigma toward cancer survivors in countries like South Korea. This study aimed to develop a chatbot tailed to the unique characteristics of childhood cancer survivors in need of informational and emotional support. Given the limited availability of empirical data on childhood cancer survivors, quotes from survivors were gathered from academic articles and social media, then large language models were employed to generate appropriate responses. Furthermore, we incorporated domain learning techniques to ensure a more tailored and suitable model for addressing the needs of survivors.