A growing number of people live longer with and beyond cancer, therefore cancer is increasingly considered a long-term condition, which has important implications in terms of self-management. Self-management patient education requires a shift from the traditional ‘hands-on’ style of patient education towards facilitating individual problem solving and collaborative goal setting and decision-making. A combination of generic and condition-specific self-management approaches is recommended. Patients with laryngeal cancer may lack the skills required to effectively self-manage their disease and printed information booklets can be used as an aid to self-management.

This article discusses the management of cancer as a long-term condition, the importance of educating patients with cancer to self-manage their condition, and the benefits and limitations of printed information resources as an aid to self-management in laryngeal cancer.