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Annals of Oncology 2006 17(3):359-360; doi:10.1093/annonc/mdl012
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© 2006 European Society for Medical Oncology

editorial

Breaking bad news in oncology: like a walk in the twilight?

E. Aitini and P. Aleotti

Medical Oncology and Hematology Department, Ospedale di Mantova, Italy

(E-mail: enrico.aitini@ospedalimantova.it)

The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below.

While communicating good news is a pleasurable experience in our everyday lives, professional or private, communicating bad news is an uncomfortable experience for both the giver and the receiver.

The expression ‘bad news’, used to describe difficult communications, is open to interpretation and misunderstanding since it seems to refer to a one off communication instead of a process and because it evokes the idea of an impersonal transmission of information.

Bad news is defined as any information that produces a negative alteration to a person's expectations about their present and future [1Go]. Sigmund Freud often quoted the evangelic saying ‘the truth will set you free, without truth there can be no freedom’. However, the truth regarding bad news can be dangerous because it deals . . . [Full Text of this Article]


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