Cancer patients should be told about their condition, or not

2008-06-17 16:32:15 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Health & Fitness)

Chicago, Illinois (WiredPRNews.com) — Eileen Mulligan was a cancer patient in advanced stage, chemotherapy stopped working for her and there were no options for her to try anymore. Her physician, Dr. John Marshall at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Centre of the Georgetown University, realized that it was time that she should look into the hospice care. At first, Eileen was shocked, but then she realized that this was a good way to handle things. Now she is making a list of things that she would like to do before dying. Her top priority is to get her sons come for some days at her home in Washington DC.

Many doctors do not talk that straight with their patients and most of them think that they are helping them by keeping a hope alive. Keeping in view the right of the patients to know and the benefits of them knowing their condition, the California Assembly passed a rule that would require the physicians to give correct answers to the patients who want to know about their condition and the options available to them. According to a study which involved around 600 people in New Hampshire, Texas, Massachusetts and Connecticut showed that patients whose doctors had talked about their condition with them were 3 times less wanting to spend last week of their life under intensive care, 4 times less wanting to remain on the breathing machines and 6 times less wanting to get artificial respiration.

Specialist of brain tumor at the Duke University, Dr. James Vredenburgh said that different people may react differently. Some of the patients are willing to speak about their death in the first meeting with the doctor itself but some will never encourage such a conversation. Sometimes, there can be even doctors who do not want to believe that they have failed and they keep continue to try to have victory over the disease.