[Cancer Notification by Hospital Doctors for Terminally-Ill Cancer Patients Referred to Visiting Physician].

Notification of cancer is essential for medical treatment based on patient preference. I studied 45 terminally-ill cancer patients referred to my clinic from January 2012 to December 2013. The data of each patient was retrospectively collected from their medical record. Cancer notification was not done in 4 cases(9%). Notification of cancer metastasis or terminally ill status was not done in 9 cases(20%). The reasons for no announcement of cancer included the family's concern regarding depriving the patient or hope or hospital doctor policy. In home-care situations, cancer notification might be difficult because home-care physicians take over patient care from hospital doctors who may not always inform the patient regarding their cancer status.