What Filipinos, the world’s number one Internet users, want to know about cancer: A Google search analysis from 2015 to 2019.

23 Background: Filipinos were the world’s heaviest Internet users in 2018. It has been shown that they use the Internet to actively search for health-related information, but it has not yet been determined what kinds of information are sought. There is a gap in our present understanding of the information needs of the Filipino population in relation to cancer. The study assessed the cancer-related information needs of Filipinos using Internet search data from March 2015 to May 2019. Methods: A retrospective longitudinal study was done using Google AdWords Keyword Planner to identify search terms related to cancer from Internet users from the Philippines from June 2015 to May 2019. The identified search terms were assessed descriptively using Microsoft Excel version 16.26. The search terms were qualitatively categorized and described. Results: A total of 806 cancer-related search terms were identified, with 13,632,890 Google web searches, during the period under review. The top ten search terms with the highest monthly search volume in the Philippines (n=4,741,600, 34.78%) were “cancer,” “breast cancer,” “cervical cancer,” “prostate cancer,” “colon cancer,” “breast cancer symptoms,” “lung cancer,” “lung cancer symptoms,” “colon cancer symptoms,” and “lungs.” In this time period, Filipinos sought information on cancer-related signs and symptoms (n=3,307,640, 24.26%) and cancer treatment (n=604,070, 4.43%). Filipinos also searched for alternative, herbal, and natural cancer treatments, but the search volume accounted for a low percentage of the total searches (n=8,710, 0.06%). Searches for the search term, “cancer,” were highest on January to February, a trend observed from January 2016 to 2019. Conclusions: Our study provides insight into the cancer-related information needs of the Filipino population. This information may inform the development of targeted, cost-effective awareness campaigns through the Internet, which may be more effective if launched at the beginning of each year.