2015, Volume 8, Issue 1, pp 37 – 40

Ups and downs in physician – cancer patient relationship

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

Issues

Special Issues

Authors and Affiliations

Correspondence to:Popescu Bogdan, MD, PhD, “Colțea” Clinical Hospital, Bucharest, 1-3 I.C. Brătianu Ave., District 3, Bucharest, Romania, Mobile phone: +40 728 160 269, E-mail: dr.bpopescu@gmail.com

Abstract

Introduction.Over the past years, there has been an increasing interest in involving the cancer patients in the decision making regarding the therapy management due to several factors. The most important aspect to be taken into consideration is the principle of patient autonomy. More and more patients have become interested in making informed decisions regarding their therapy options and physicians need to be able to provide data on the aspect. Some patient-physician models have been proposed and used for 40 years now. Still, the debate is very important for most of the physicians due to the shifts in the approach.

Materials and methods. To really express the concerns that the authors address, the case of a head and neck cancer patient and the possible dialogues with the physician were presented. Each type of communication model with the patient is very important because nowadays, intrications between the four are likely to occur. There are legal aspects that need to be taken into consideration such as the informed consent, the ethical and moral aspects.

Conclusions The possibility of individualized oncological therapy for the cancer patient leads to different decisions for both the patient and the physician. The decision making process involves the patient at different levels. Legal implications tend to affect the healthiness of the dialogue between the physician and the cancer patient and might be a key-point in the further development of the ethical aspects.

Keywords

About this article

PMC ID: 4397517
PubMed ID: 25914736
DOI: 

Article Publishing Date (print): Jan-Mar 2015
Available Online: 

Journal information

ISSN Printing: 1844-122X
ISSN Online: 1844-3117
Journal Title: Journal of Medicine and Life

Copyright License: Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.


SCImago Journal & Country Rank

Issues

Special Issues