Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Study: Many terminally ill patients feel abandoned by their doctors

Published in Clinical Oncology Week, March 23rd, 2009

Terminally ill patients and their family caregivers often feel abandoned by their doctors and feel a sense of "unfinished business" with them, according to a new study by an oncologist at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

The study results, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, identified two themes: before death, abandonment worries related to loss of continuity of communication between patient and physician; and at the time death or after, the patient's family's feelings of abandonment from a lack of closure with the physician. "Doctors often don't realize how important this issue is for patients and their families," said lead author Anthony Back, M.D., an...

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Source: Clinical Oncology Week (2009-03-23)

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