Bads news when it comes to sharing bad news.

Does breaking bad news have to mean breaking spirits? According to this month’s JCO pub, yes. Among 350 patients with newly-diagnosed terminal cancer diagnoses, more than half did not understand their diagnoses were fatal and nearly one third understood their treatments to be of curative intent. What’s worse, those who did have an accurate understanding of their illness had significantly worse QOL and mood. Which may not come as much of a surprise. But not everything’s bad news: the use of positive-reframing and active-coping techniques significantly improved these deficits. Sounds like what they really need is real doctoring.