[Confidentiality in medical practice: tell no one].
Medical confidentiality is sometimes difficult to impose on patient's families, especially in the field of oncology. Here, we describe the case of a 54-years-old woman with a T1N0M0 lung adenocarcinoma. After the diagnosis was made, she advised the medical team not to inform her family about her disease. Although the patient was aware of the high-risk of relapse, she was lost of follow-up after first-line treatment. Five years later, she presented with multi-metastatic recurrence and had to be admitted in an intensive-care unit for severe respiratory failure due to tumor progression. She kept refusing to inform her family, which in the end was contacted by the patient's sister, a few hours before her death. This observation highlights the absolute inviolability of medical confidentiality and led the French Association of Young Pneumologist to initiate a multi-disciplinary symposium on ethical problems raised by the management of patients with lung cancer.
Couraud
Sébastien
S
Service de pneumologie, hôpital de la Croix-Rousse, Hospices civils de Lyon, Lyon, France. scouraud@yahoo.fr
Arpin
Dominique
D
Perol
Maurice
M
Guérin
Jean-Claude
JC
Gérinière
Laurence
L
Deygas
Serge
S
Rhomer
Benjamin
B
Audras
Stéphanie
S
Bertoletti
Laurent
L
Cortot
Alexis
A
Coudurier
Marie
M
Girard
Nicolas
N
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary / Q000628:therapy; D003219:Confidentiality; D018450:Disease Progression; D005190:Family; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D012131:Respiratory Insufficiency / Q000209:etiology