ABSTRACT
The raised level of public expectation results in many questions being put to professionals. What seems simple science to a professional can be totally baffling to a patient and his family. The clinical reality can be hard for patients to hear, but clear explanation is vital. This chapter presents a list of questions that contains both the common and some of the more difficult ones put to professionals, with tips and advice that may be useful to answer them. Patients usually think that everything shows on a scan. It may even be necessary to inform them that a tumour has to be big enough to be picked up on a scan, and that clusters of cells are not detectable. If a patient had private healthcare insurance prediagnosis of colon cancer, they may have received treatment earlier in their illness than they would have received it on the NHS, although this is happening less frequently.
