What do cancer patients want from their Doctors? A study presented at the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s annual meeting stated among other things patients want honesty about their chance for cure.
I wonder how the question was posed to the 500 patients in their interview.
Was it, ‘True or False, Do you want your radiation oncologist to lie to you about the chance that your cancer is cured?’
Yikes! Maybe I am wrong, but do some people want the lie?
In a recent entry in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Danish scientists surveyed 3,000 women who had breast cancer surgery. About half of the women said they had pain for up to 2 years after surgery, but only 1 in 5 told their doctors about their pain.
I wonder how the question was posed to the patients. Was it ‘True or False, No pain, Right?’
Yikes again!
Doctors know patients lie, and patients know when they are lying to their doctors. The question is; Does everyone know they are lying to each other when it comes to pain and cancer prognosis? What would be the goal to lie?
Cancer is such a complex disease, that honesty is truly the best policy, but then again lying can be easier than the truth. It wasn’t that long ago that doctors held a bad or terminal diagnosis from a woman patient and told her husband or some other male at first. Not that long ago women kept their diagnosis to themselves so not to upset the family. How interesting that deceit has a long and growing history when it comes to the patient-doctor relationship.
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Hi Pat, I think the generation past of doctors were told they were the smartest person in the room their entire lives and sometimes it was so but sometimes their social skills were lacking and they came off as know it alls. They also were never taught how to deal with noncompliance. To disagree with a doctor is still an issue between patients and doctors. You bring up the great point of knowledge from the internet, awareness of drugs from commercials and this is great discussion points to have with a doctor with honesty on both sides.
December 30, 2009 - 5:46pmThis Comment
Hi Haralee - This is quite an interesting post. I've worked with a lot of doctors over the years and there were very few that were deliberate liars. Doctors often are only in a position to make an educated guess. Sometimes those guesses are accurate, sometimes they're not.
December 29, 2009 - 6:56pmIn an Internet world patients have access to more information than ever before. If they choose to do so they can do a lot of their own detective work and find reports with probable lifespans for specific diagnoses. Doctors know this and know there's little reason to not provide complete information to patients.
Of course there will be some who aren't honest with patients. But there are also patients who hide their pain, deliberately hold off on scheduling appointments and play other games that end up affecting the doctor's ability to provide the best treatment. Honesty on the part of all parties is what's needed, no question about that! Take care, Pat
This Comment
Diane you are right on target. I think you expressed it very well.
December 29, 2009 - 10:27amThis Comment
When my father's prognosis (he had cancer) was very poor, the doctor lied to my mother about it. Because of this, she had much less time to adjust to the thought of losing her husband and to prepare for it. It came as a shock a few days later (she had been told it could be weeks or months). Not all the family was able to be there. Because this doctor wasn't strong enough to look my mother in the eye and tell her how bad things were, it affected her and our entire family in numerous negative ways.
I think many doctors confuse honesty and compassion when they have to break bad news to a family. And yes, there may be some people who would rather not know. But the bottom line is that the patient's family should own the information, not the doctor. Keeping information from a patient and their family denies them the ability to make decisions and confront reality.
Doctors may think that to give a very poor prognosis will take away hope. I don't think that's true. We as hunans are very adept at accepting a new bottom line and staying hopeful in spite of it. What keeping that prognosis to themselves takes from a family is far worse than hope.
Every patient is different, every family is different and every doctor is different. But a doctor sees hundreds of patients in a year, and a patient has only one life. It seems like the patient's needs for information should prevail.
December 29, 2009 - 8:41amThis Comment