Cancer patients 'not told enough'

Half of breast cancer patients are given "incomplete or incomprehensible" information about their disease, researchers have found.

The study of 1,000 women also found more than half wanted more opportunity to talk to medical staff.

Even if patients were given information if they were stressed they did not fully take it in.

Doctors must improve their communication skills concluded researchers.

Quality of life

In the study, carried out by researchers from the Munich Cancer Registry and the medical clinic at Ludwig Maximilians University, across 50 hospitals, 45% said some aspect of medical staff's communication was unclear, and 69% wanted more time to speak to staff.

Even though the majority said social and psychological help was important, only a third had contact with a self-help group, psychologist or social worker.

Only half of patients were aware such support was available.

In an assessment of women's quality of life, scores varied significantly depending on whether they reported clear and unclear communication.

The study looked specifically at women who had arm problems, such as pain or restricted movement, after breast cancer treatment.

It found that in the first year of treatment 47% were particularly dissatisfied with the information they were given and over five years this rose to 60%.

Those given the least information had a worse quality of life.

'Living in fear'

Dr Jacqueline Kerr, who led the research, said: "If clinicians better appreciated the prevalence and consequences of arm problems they might be encouraged to talk about it more openly with the patient, give more information about prevention and encourage patients to seek early treatment.

"The effect of communication at the time of diagnosis will diminish and quality of life improve over time.

"However, research indicates that some cancer survivors continue to live in fear of recurrence and their needs are not addressed in routine care."

Age affected how patients felt about communication.

Those under 50 were less satisfied, but those who reported unclear information did not suffer significantly worse quality of life.

Older patients, though less likely to complain about poor communication, were more likely to have a worse quality of life if they were given insufficient information.

The researchers said hospitals had to take this into account when dealing with older patients.

Inexpensive improvements

Dr Jutta Engel, who also worked on the research, said: "This generation may have lower expectations rather than lower needs and perhaps worries about taking up the doctor's time."