Delays in diagnosing cancer. Threat to the patient-physician relationship.
Year: 2003
Type: editorial
Abstract: That’s probably been the hardest thing to accept about this whole cancer thing, is the fact that it could have been caught a lot sooner, and it wouldn’t be metasta-sized by now. You know, he would have been saved. —wife of a cancer patient A long delay in the diagnosis of cancer can cause a crisis in relationships between patients and their family physicians.1 Both parties could be left shaken and worried, doubting themselves and each other but often unable to discuss what has happened. The rela-tionship might rupture at the very moment when its resources for healing are most needed. About 30 % of a random sample of 202 patients with recently diagnosed cancer thought that it should have been diagnosed sooner and were more likely to be seeing a new family physician than those who felt
Source: PubMed
Author: Jeffrey J Sisler
Language: English
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2119712675