The Patient with Cancer — His Changing Pattern of Communication

ALMOST every physician will admit that he is uncomfortable when he faces a patient with cancer. What is he going to say? What does the patient want to hear, to know? Observations suggest that the physician can lighten this burden by seeking guidance from the patient. For it is the patient himself who offers the clues to how much, how little or how often he wishes to discuss his diagnosis and prognosis.What, then, is the mode of communication between the physician and the patient with cancer? The latter has different thresholds of needs, defenses and fantasies at different stages . . .