Information and Awareness of Diagnosis and Progression of Cancer in Adult and Elderly Cancer Patients

Abstract

The results of the study showed that physicians informed a greater number of adult than elderly patients and more often during the early rather than in the more advanced stages of the disease.

Illness Awareness of Patients in Hospice: Psychological Evaluation and Perception of Family Members and Medical Staff

“…Consistent with the literature, [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] our study showed that there was a high percentage of patients who were not aware of their disease (30%), and most of all, they were not aware of the state of their disease (62%).…”

“…[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] These studies, indeed, show that patients frequently deduce the type and seriousness of their disease from their treatments or from the side effects of the drugs they are given. Only few patients have an accurate perception of the purpose of palliative therapy in advanced stages of the disease.…”

“…Other authors 17,23 have shown that the need for information of patients with cancer are substantial, nonetheless doctors continue not to reveal the prognosis and other detailed information on the disease to them.…”

The EORTC information questionnaire, EORTC QLQ-INFO25. Validation study for Spanish patients

“…As in the EORTC study [18] and other studies, the QLQ-INFO25 detected differences related to age [28,29], gender [30], emotional functioning [2,27] and education [31] in the expected directions. Also as expected, patients who had received more prior treatment, with less need for information and greater satisfaction reported higher scores on received information.…”

Congruence of Knowledge, Experiences, and Preferences for Disclosure of Diagnosis and Prognosis between Terminally-Ill Cancer Patients and Their Family Caregivers in Taiwan

“…Diagnostic information was more likely to be known or be disclosed to terminally-ill cancer patients and their family caregivers than information on curability of the disease, expected length, and chances of survival. This phenomenon was also observed by Caruso and colleagues from Italy (28). In addition, general information on diagnosis and prognosis was more likely to be known and be released to the subjects than detailed diseased-related information.…”