Resumo

PINEIRO FERNANDEZ, Justo. ¿debe el paciente conocer que tiene un cáncer?: Nuestra experiencia en las pacientes con cáncer de mama. Rev Cubana Cir [online]. 2004, vol.43, n.1, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1561-2945.

An ethical and philosophical analysis on the knowledge patients suffering from cancer should have about their disease is made. Cancer is the second cause of death in Cuba. The treatments and technological advances make these patients survive longer every day and have a better quality of life. In women, breast cancer and cervix cancer are the most frequent. The first is evidently more mutilating due to the fact that the breast has to do with sex, beauty, feminity and maternity. According to our experience, when the patient and his family previously know that a breast cancer has been detected it causes at first an emotional and affective shock that will be overcome fast through an excellent physician-patient and physician-family relationship. On the basis of this experience, we recommend to tell the patients the type of disease they have

Palavras-chave : BREAST NEOPLASMS; PHYSICIAN-PATIENT RELATIONS; TRUTH DISCOLOSURE.