More often than not, strong emotions can be problematic to one's health -- not to mention contagious -- and adding cancer to the mix will worsen things. So, why would doctors choose an impersonal way of conveying the news that their patients had X kind of cancer?

Imagine receiving that call, then your doctor hanging up before you could ask more questions. Or being left the most frightening news of your life on a 30-second voice-mail message…

Based on a recent study of 437 patients, just 54 percent of them were told about their cancer diagnosis in an office setting. Of the remaining 46 percent, however, 18 percent were told over the phone (sometimes, a very prudent thing to do depending on the situation) and the rest received the news at a hospital, with little-to-no privacy whatsoever. Arguably, the most damning number of them all: Thirty-nine percent of patients received the news by themselves.

No surprise, then, that 57 percent of the patients polled changed doctors after their diagnoses for multiple reasons, apart from distance or choosing an alternative treatment, like losing trust and general dissatisfaction. That said, doctors earned a median satisfaction score of 74 percent, and 16 percent of their patients expressed absolute trust in them.

Patients need and expect their oncologists, not only to have the necessary expertise to treat their cancer, but to possess the emotional intelligence that makes receiving this life-changing news simpler to digest intellectually AND emotionally.

Journal of Clinical Oncology July 6, 2010

Yahoo News July 7, 2010