Publisher's Synopsis
In many parts of the world seriously ill patients are not informed of their diagnoses. Consequences of this for the patient are not being informed about the therapy and its possible side-effects and ultimately deprivaion of autonomy. Telling the truth to a patient is not simply a matter of providing information. Rather, the truth is a matter of two-way communication, the result of a relationship between doctor and patient that develops over time in the context of a given culture. In this volume oncologists in different countries give their perceptions of how truth telling is handled in their cultures.