it’s true. in mmedicine , as in life, truth always hurts the least.

Its better to let the patient know the truth than giving him/her false hopes.... Though its heartrending to tell your patient about his/her eventual death, the doctor must, in a polished way of course.. The patients have a right to know what is happening with their bodies.

I personally have known three friends who didn’t survive cancer. They were treated in India. One of them was aware of the prognosis and was very scared and terrified. The other was not bothered about the end and was full of life till death defeated her spirits. So it is a difficult decision since one doesn’t know how patients handle the news. The news itself kills some before the cancer does...

The news should be broken with much expertise....as the common notion of Cancer=Death isn’t ruled out with much assurance. I have handled a cancer patient closely in my house and seen his end too. Other than that, have seen many dear ones dying and also surviving it too. Dunno for how long, but I do believe that death is inevitable with Cancer. and its more torturous to know that you are living with it each day.

Doctors are also humans, one of the reasons they do not break the news to the patients could be that they do not want to distress the patient further. But yes personally I would like to be aware of all the ground realities.

It’s hard to tell someone that he is going to die, or he is nearly at the end of his life. The person who is suffering needs to have courage to bear that truth, otherwise, the few days of life will be miserable. All the people don’t have the courage to face such things. But the doctor needs to be much more courageous to express this directly before the dying person.

In some cases it may cut the unnecessary medical expences and the patient would like to spend rest of his life with joy. But just contrary may happen, that it may be a suffering to the whole family.