Doctors need to believe in miracles too: truth-telling about therapeutic aims of cancer treatments

By Professor Dame Lesley Fallowfield, SHORE-C, Brighton & Sussex Medical School Care, University of Sussex

Abstract

Patients with advanced cancer need realistic discussions about treatment options and prognosis to enable wise decision-making.Talking honestly about such issues is never easy and many doctors admit they avoid such discussions. Barriers to open disclosure include not wanting to cause distress and uncertainty about the disease trajectory. Even when broached, recent research shows communication is ambiguous, evasive and overly optimistic leaving patients confused about true therapeutic aims of further anti-cancer treatments and some dying in a place not of their choosing in receipt of futile therapies.

Speaker

Dame Lesley Fallowfield is Professor of Psycho-oncology at Brighton & Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex where she is Director of the Sussex Health Outcomes Research & Education in Cancer (SHORE-C) group. Her research interests include the measurement of quality of life in clinical trials of cancer therapy and the training of communication skills for health care professionals in cancer. She has published over 400 papers, many book chapters and 3 text books. She lectures and runs training workshops throughout the world in psychosocial oncology, quality of life assessment and communication skills. In 2008 she was made a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and in 2016 a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

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