A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine points to miscommunication between terminal cancer patients and their care providers.
 
The study found that 69% of patients with metastiatic lung cancer believe therapy will cure them. Among patients with metastatic colorectal cancer, that belief is held by 81%.
 
At the same time, those patients who thought chemotherapy might cure them were more likely to rate the quality of communications with their physician highly. One possible interpretation: Patients rate positive communications highly, while giving bad marks to bad news, says Alex Smith in an analysis of the study on the GeriPal blog.
 
For palliative care providers, these findings demonstrate the need for honest communication with terminal patients, Smith says. Terminal patients are more likely to forego chemotherapy and opt to improve the quality of their final months if they are well informed about their choices, he argues.