title: Different attitudes of Chinese patients and their families toward truth telling of different stages of cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Cancer patients and their families differed in their attitude toward truth telling. The objective is to investigate different attitudes of Chinese patients or families toward whether and how to disclose diagnosis to patients with different stages of cancer and to examine the difference between the two groups.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was delivered to 1023 participants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three hundred and eighty-two patients and 482 families completed the questionnaire. Cancer patients were more likely than families to believe that patient should be informed of the diagnosis (early-stage, 90.8 vs 69.9%, P<0.001; terminal stage, 60.5 vs 34.4%, P<0.001), and that doctor-in-charge was the appropriate person to disclose the diagnosis. Most participants thought that patient should be disclosed immediately after the diagnosis. Nearly half of participants reported that patient should be disclosed in a quiet and undisturbed room. When the hypothetic diagnosis changed from early-stage cancer to terminal illness, the number of participants, who wanted patient to know the diagnosis, decreased significantly.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings indicated that Chinese cancer patients and their families differed in their attitude toward truth telling and the attitudes toward such a disclosure were influenced by disease stage. Physicians should realize this phenomenon and pay more attention to the skills of how to disclose the cancer diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, People's Republic of China. jiangyu@csco.org.cn
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jun-Ying
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Mei-Juan
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Wen-Xiu
authors.initials: WX
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Ru
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Bing
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.forename: Xiao-Bo
authors.initials: XB
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Xia
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Yu-Quan
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Wei
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D001294:Attitude to Health / Q000208:ethnology*; D002681:China; D005190:Family / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology; D014342:Truth Disclosure