Disclosure preferences regarding cancer diagnosis and prognosis: to tell or not to tell?

Abstract

Telling people that they have cancer has a great impact on their lives, so many doctors are concerned about how they should inform patients about a cancer diagnosis and its prognosis. We conducted a general population survey in Japan to investigate people's preferences on receiving this information. There were no significant differences in respondents' preferences according to the seriousness of the cancer. Full disclosure of the diagnosis was preferred by 86.1% of the respondents, while 2.7% wanted non-disclosure. As for the initial provision of information, the majority preferred partial disclosure concerning the prospects of complete recovery (64.5%) and the expected length of survival (64.1%). Those who responded negatively to the statement, ''If I am close to the end of my life, I want to be informed of the fact so I can choose my own way of life'', were more likely to want non-disclosure on diagnosis. The results suggest that, at the first opportunity of providing information, a disclosure policy of giving patients full details of their diagnosis and some information on prognosis can satisfy the preferences of most patients. Contrary to popular belief, the seriousness of the cancer and people's demographic characteristics displayed little impact in this study.

Communication with Physicians about Health Care Costs: Survey of an Insured Population

“…We find the model of treatment decision-making proposed by Charles et al 173 to be a particularly useful starting point because it helps distinguish active patient participation from control of deci sion-making. The model presents three types of decision-making that lie along a spectrum:…”

Revealing a Cancer Diagnosis to Patients: Attitudes of Patients, Families, Friends, Nurses, and Physicians in Lebanon—Results of a Cross-Sectional Study

“…Parties to the communication process include physicians, nurses, families, and the patients themselves 8 . Culture and religious beliefs play a major role with respect to the influence of each party 9 .…”

Experiences of truth disclosure in terminally ill cancer patients in palliative home care

“…Truth and truth-telling have been studied from numerous perspectives, including those of healthy adults, cancer patients, cancer patient's families, nurses, and physicians (Costello, 2000;Georgaki et al, 2002;Lorensen et al, 2003;Miyata et al, 2005;Jiang et al, 2006Jiang et al, , 2007Ozdogan et al, 2006). But what is included in the vocabulary around truth telling remains undefined.…”