Does awareness of terminal status influence survival and quality of life in terminally ill cancer patients?

Abstract

Awareness of prognosis may negatively impact survival and QoL in terminally ill cancer patients. Therefore, the patient's preference for and individual susceptibility to receiving such information should be assessed carefully before disclosure.

Associations of prognostic awareness/acceptance with psychological distress, existential suffering, and quality of life in terminally ill cancer patients' last year of life

“…Prognostic awareness has been positively , negatively , or not associated with more depressive or anxiety symptoms. Similarly, prognostic awareness was shown to facilitate , impede , or not affect existential or spiritual well‐being and to improve , deteriorate , or not influence QOL.…”

“…The conflicting effects of prognostic awareness on terminally ill cancer patients' psycho‐spiritual well‐being and QOL may be attributed to insufficiencies in how prognostic awareness was measured and how its influences were evaluated as indicated in one recent systematic review . All studies measured prognostic awareness once and were mainly cross‐sectional, except for one study that evaluated the impact of baseline prognostic awareness on QOL over 2–3 months. Furthermore, cognitive awareness of one's prognosis does not guarantee emotional acceptance of one's poor prognosis.…”

Iranian Cancer Patient Perceptions of Prognosis and the Relationship to Hope

“…While some research suggests that there are few associated negative effects (Barnett, 2006;Last & van, Veldhuizen, 1996;Leung et al, 2006;Yun et al, 2010), there is some evidence that this information negatively effects survival (Yun et al 2011;Kim et al, 2013), physical (Papadopoulos et al, 2011) and mental health (Chochinov et al, 2000; Alehe Seyedrasooli et al Mack et al, 2006;Burridge et al, 2009;Chan, 2011;Papadopoulos et al, 2011) and quality of life (Tang et al, 2008) of cancer patients. The disclosure of cancerrelated information very likely has a significant impact on a patient's degree of hope.…”

Does awareness of diagnosis influence health related quality of life in north Indian patients with lung cancer ?

“…A study from Korea on 100 patients with advanced malignancy reported significantly higher degree of social, emotional and role functioning, and lower fatigue, anorexia, constipation, anxiety and financial difficulties, among patients aware of their diagnosis compared to those who were not13. Terminally ill cancer patients aware of their disease status had poor survival and HRQL in another study from China14. A recent systematic review has also shown mixed findings regarding the impact of patients’ awareness of metastatic cancer on HRQL15.…”