Breaking Bad News Protocol for Cancer Disclosure: An Iranian Version

In Iran, as in many Asian and Middle Eastern countries, a significant proportion of cancer patients are never informed of their illness. One of the proposed solutions to tackle this challenge is to develop a localized protocol based on the culture and values of community members about cancer and the truth-telling phenomenon, and training of health care team members to disclose the bad news using this protocol. In the same vein, this study also introduced a localized protocol for disclosure of bad news to cancer patients, resulting from a larger mixed study (qualitative-quantitative). The implementation of the present protocol demands a team work and its stages are as follows: assessment, planning, preparation, disclosure, support and conclusion