Different Attitudes and Awareness of Patients and Their Families About Cancer and Its Terminal Illness

Cancer patients and their families are different in their attitude regarding knowing the truth, especially during advanced disease stages. Most of Iranian cancer patients are not aware about their own conditions; sometimes due to their families’ request. This study aimed to clarify the differences of attitude and awareness between Iranian cancer suffering patients and their families, regarding the disclosure of the truth about the disease stages, the appropriate notifier person and time of truth disclosure. This prospective and observational study was performed in the National Research Institute of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (NRITLD). The demographic and clinical questionnaires were presented to 104 consecutive individuals (70 patients and their 34 relatives). All of the patients’ relatives and 82% of patients were aware of their disease. The patients’ attitudes on truth disclosure were different from their families. In comparison to the patients’ relatives, the patients believed more that they should be informed of their terminal illness, (98.5% patients vs 5.9% relatives, P value=0.0001). Furthermore all patients intended to receive information about terminal illness immediately by doctor-in-charge but most of their families (52.9%) believed that the patients should be informed about their terminal illness by their relatives, gradually. Logistic regression analysis in both patients and their relatives indicated that attitude toward disclosure of terminal illness did not differ regarding to sex, age and educational level. Our findings indicated that Iranian cancer patients and their families differed in their attitude toward truth telling. The physicians should notice to this phenomenon and pay more attention to the skills of disclosing cancer diagnosis to the patients and their families.