Bad news in oncology: which are the right words?

Excerpt

Communicating good news is usually easy. Communicating bad news is difficult. And communicating very bad news—is part of the “daily routine” work of every oncologist. But it is not routine work at all, and it definitely is difficult, and more than that. The ancient custom to kill the person who communicates the bad news has subsided, admittedly. But it is still a part of our work which we sometimes fear, and which can leave us frustrated and feeling quite helpless. On the one hand it is known that the information we give is an important part of the treatment itself, with effects at least on quality of life [5], while on the other hand evidence suggests that we do not do a particularly good job in giving it [8]. If only we knew which are the right words for these situations, e.g., the disclosure of diagnosis of malignancy, of metastatic disease [2], of relapse, or of life-threatening complications, be it to the patient himself, or to the parents in the case of children with cancer. …