OBJECTIVES: The objective was to analyze the telephonic cancer help lines in India and to determine their need and potential application and also evaluate their potential to enhance flawless and uniform communication in cancer health delivery. METHODS: A Multi-Centre survey was conducted across 9 cities pan India with a structured questionnaire. The survey participants were oncologists, paramedical staff, hospital administrators, patients, their care takers, social workers, government officials and medical representatives. Collected data was statistically analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 670 people were surveyed across the country. Approximately, only 25% of the surveyed subjects were aware of cancer help lines which mainly encompassed the educated class. However, almost 97% of the total surveyed people revealed complete willingness for this service and its highest need was perceived in the villages. The convenience and comfort of telephone for health education was assessed to be 90.70% and 86.20% respectively and 88% perceived it as better than internet for personalized information. 92.3% of the oncologists acknowledged it to be useful in patient follow-up and for referring physicians for palliative care and majority of the other stakeholders recognized it to be useful in rendering better medical, emotional and supportive care thereby ultimately benefitting the patients in technologically and economically underprivileged countries like India. CONCLUSIONS: Owing to the health education potential of cancer helplines, and its ability to link all the healthcare sectors, its implementation in developing countries like India that face the burden of cancer care, poor patient follow-up and poor psychosocial support will contribute towards better and cost-effective treatment approach as well as overcome the persistent problem of poor communication in the healthcare delivery and create means for uniform data collection.