ABSTRACT
This book describes ways to converse with cancer patients in order to help them understand the nature of their illness and the complex management thereof. Conversation involves talking and listening. In this regard, your primary responsibility as a doctor is to explain the medical facts about a patient’s illness and to advise on management. With practice this is not difficult to accomplish – “listening” is much harder, but is absolutely essential. The overriding emotion surrounding conversations about cancer is that of anxiety. Patients are afraid – afraid of the whole concept of a life-threatening disease, afraid of its treatment and afraid that they are going to die sooner than they had expected. In professional life, your time with an individual patient will always be limited and there is much that you have to say in explaining the complexity of cancer. However, it is vital to allow time for the patient to express their own personal concerns to enable you to focus on the particular aspects that are of immediate relevance to them at this time.
