[Recent changes in informed consent for cancer treatment].
"Truth telling" which was focused on just telling patients they have cancer, is gradually developing into "informed consent (IC)" which is focused on patients' understanding of their disease after careful explanation by their doctors. The major goal of IC is to respect the patients' self-determination and self-selection of the therapies they will receive and to establish close relationships between patients and doctors. Although truth telling about patients' prognosis is not yet fully established, providing such information to patients is basically unavoidable to obtain true IC. In delivering the bad news and obtaining IC as part of patient medical care, it is very important for doctors to brush up their communication skills with patients.
Shimoyama
Naohito
N
Dept of Anesthesiology and Palliative Medicine, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
Murakami
Toshifumi
T
Takahashi
Hidenori
H
Sasako
Mitsuru
M
D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D014342:Truth Disclosure