BACKGROUND: Cancer has become one of the top causes of
death in developing nations killing more people than the common
infectious diseases do. For several reasons, disclosing cancer
diagnosis to the patient is a challenging job for physicians and
family members.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was done
to determine the common cancer diagnosis and the preference
about disclosing cancer diagnosis to the patients among attendants
of adult cancer patients seen at the regular surgical OPD of St.
Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical college (SPHMMC) in June
1-31st 2015. Medical records of the patients and face-to-face
interview with attendants were used to generate the data and
analysis was done with SPSS version 19.0.
RESULTS: A total 112(7.3%) patients were diagnosed to have
cancer and 104 attendants (93%) were interviewed. The mean age
of the patients was 48.2 years, Females made up 59% of the
patients. The commonest cancer diagnosed was breast cancer.
Male (62.7%) and children (36.1%) were the main attendants. Only
56.6% of the attendants agreed that patients should be the first to
know diagnosis results. When possible, 84.3% preferred to hide
diagnosis. Although 81.3% attendants did not like diagnosis
disclosure to the patient, all of them wanted to know the diagnosis
if they develop cancer. Nearly all, 98.8%, of the attendants
preferred to hear the diagnosis from their doctors.