Psycho-Oncology

Communication with cancer patients: the perspective of caregivers versus non-caregivers in Iran

“…They emphasized including the views of close family in informing the patient, prioritizing the "no harm" principle over "respect for autonomy", replacing the term cancer with less scary words, planning and preparing the family to tell the truth, and not mentioning a potential time of death. Part of this recommendation seems not to be in line with the western view on delivering bad news but may work better in Iran (Scheidt et al, 2017).…”

“…Although over 80% of Iranian healthcare specialists and patients had positive attitudes toward telling the truth to a patient (Zamani et al, 2011;Nasrollahi et al, 2022), a study shows that only 35% of patients were completely informed about their disease, and only 7% of patients were aware of the prognosis (Larizadeh and Malekpour-Afshar, 2007), especially when the patient is young or old. Medical students in Iran learn how to break bad news, however in practice, it is often the families that handle the news and the information (Larizadeh and Malekpour-Afshar, 2007;Scheidt et al, 2017). In a recent representative study from Pakistan, the majority of patients expressed a preference for their family members to receive the bad news initially (Shah et al, 2023).…”

“…In a recent representative study from Pakistan, the majority of patients expressed a preference for their family members to receive the bad news initially (Shah et al, 2023). When the family is involved in the diagnosis stage, such as receiving test results, meeting with various specialists to reach a diagnosis, the possibility that the patient is left out of the decision-making process is very high (Scheidt et al, 2017). In such a situation, it is very common that the family and surrounding people request the doctor not to tell the patient the definitive diagnosis.…”

“…As mentioned earlier, the perspectives of healthcare staff on a patient's right to know may not align with the family's preferred approach to conveying bad news. The caregivers have an important role and often wish not to harm the patients (Scheidt et al, 2017). Nevertheless, it could be, that attitudes about the communication process may change due to the experiences in the care and the communication compared to persons without any contact to the illness of cancer.…”