Objective: The objectives are to study cancer patients' awareness of their diagnosis and to determine who tends to disclose bad news to cancer patients.
Method: A total of 151 consecutive oral and maxillofacial cancer patients and their relatives were surveyed using semi-structured interviews.
Results: Of the 151 patients, 64.2% were aware of their cancer diagnosis. Of this group, 20.6% had been told by physicians and 17.5% were informed by relatives, with the remaining 61.9% acquiring the diagnosis on their own. The more educated patients were more likely to be aware they had cancer.
Conclusion: Despite efforts by family members to conceal cancer diagnoses from patients, the majority of patients discovered the diagnosis of their own accord. This finding suggests that therapeutic non-disclosure is not very effective at withholding the truth from patients.