Too many advanced cancer patients lack basic understanding about their disease

Just 5% of terminally ill cancer patients understood their prognosis, researchers say. 

Only a small consortium of advanced cancer patients were able to show that they could identify and fully understand their prognosis according to a study led by faculty members from Memorial Sloan Kettering and Weill Cornell Medicine, which aimed to uncover the influence of prognostic discussions on the accuracy of illness understanding.

The open access study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, compared patients’ understanding of their illness before and after scans that staged their cancer, and before and after discussing results with their oncologist. Before the restaging scan visit, just nine (5%) of 178 patients acknowledged being at the end stage of incurable cancer with just months to live.

Find out what our contributing faculty members at the Center for Research on End-of-Life Care at Weill Cornell Medical College had to say about this issue.