JAPANESE ATTITUDES TOWARDS TRUTH DISCLOSURE IN CANCER

Despite the increasing concerns of truth disclosure, most cancer patie nts are not told the truth about their disease in Japan. The author ha s tried to provide some insight into this issue by evaluating results from questionnaires given to hospital patients, clients in a mass canc er survey, and doctors of a college hospital. Results showed that 72% of patients and 83% of clients wanted to be told the truth, but only 3 3% and 34% of them thought that the truth should be told to cancer pat ients. These attitudes of patients and clients regarding truth disclos ure were more positive than those of the general public and health car e workers in previous studies. At present, 13% of doctors inform cance r patients of their disease. These trends indicate that the Japanese a ttitude toward avoiding truth disclosure stems primarily from paternal ism but is also influenced by social characteristics including insuffi cient understanding of this issue. Open discussion involving all facti ons of society is necessary to attain a better understanding of this i ssue and to promote eventual truth disclosure.