Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T21:28:25.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When cancerophobia and denial lead to death

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2009

Michel Reich ,
Cecile Gaudron  and
Nicolas Penel
Michel Reich*
Affiliation:
Psycho-Oncology Team, Centre Oscar Lambret, Lille, France
Cecile Gaudron
Affiliation:
Psycho-Oncology Team, Centre Oscar Lambret, Lille, France
Nicolas Penel
Affiliation:
Department of General Oncology, Centre Oscar Lambret, Lille, France
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Michel Reich, Psycho-Oncology Team, Centre Oscar Lambret, 3 rue Frédéric Combemale, BP 307, 59020 Lille, France. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Objective:

The belief that cancer inevitably leads to a dreadful and painful death is widespread. This may contribute to society's cancerophobia and denial with subsequent frequent delays in seeking medical attention and treatment for suspected cancer. Cancerophobia is an active behavior of fear of cancer that can lead to repeated medical examination without giving full reassurance to the patient. Denial is a mechanism of defense that usually helps the patient to cope with painful, threatening, overwhelming, or awkward thoughts. When it turns out to be ineffective and pathological, it can cause either delay or avoidance in seeking treatment for symptoms relevant for a true malignancy and will lead inexorably to death if not cured.

Method:

To illustrate this, we report the case of a 62-year-old woman who died of massive concealed ovarian cancer, straightaway at a palliative stage, who always had a persistent denial of her medical condition and a past history of cancerophobia.

Results:

With this case report, we would like to point out that supportive or palliative care staff should pay attention to this lethal behavior.

Significance of results:

Some brief recommendations to deal with this specific problematic are outlined.

Keywords

CancerophobiaDenialCancerDeath
Type
Case Report
Information
Palliative & Supportive Care , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 253 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Blustein, J. (1993). Doing what the patient orders: Maintaining integrity in the doctor–patient relationship. Bioethics, 7, 290–314.Google Scholar
Dargent, M. & Vauterin, C. (1961). Cancerophobia. La Semaine des Hôpitaux, 37, 2417–2432.Google ScholarPubMed
Garner, H.H. (1964). Management of the patient with cancerophobia and cancer. Psychosomatics, 5, 147–152.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldbeck, R. (1997). Denial in physical illness. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 43, 575–593.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Luce, J.M. (1995). Physicians do not have a responsibility to provide futile or unreasonable care if a patient or family insists. Critical Care Medicine, 23, 760–766.Google Scholar
Moyer, A. & Levine, E.G. (1998). Clarification of the conceptualization and measurement of denial in psychosocial oncology research. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 20, 149–160.Google Scholar
Oster, M.W., Vizel, M. & Turgeon, L.R. (1978). Pain of terminal cancer patients. Archives of Internal Medicine 138, 1801–1802.Google Scholar
Rabinowitz, T. & Peirson, R. (2006). “Nothing is wrong, doctor”: Understanding and managing denial in patients with cancer. Cancer Investigation, 24, 68–76.Google Scholar
Ruiter, R.A., de Nooijer, J., van Breukelen, G., et al. (2008). Intended coping responses to cancer symptoms in healthy adults: The roles of symptom knowledge, detection behavior, and perceived threat. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, 17, 818–826.Google Scholar
Salander, P. & Windahl, G. (1999). Does ‘denial’ really cover our everyday experiences in clinical oncology? A critical view from a psychoanalytic perspective on the use of ‘denial’. The British Journal of Medical Psychology, 72, 267–279.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
van Osch, L., Lechner, L., Reubsaet, A., et al. (2007). Passive cancer detection and medical help seeking for cancer symptoms: (In)adequate behavior and psychosocial determinants. European Journal of Cancer Prevention, 16, 266–274.Google Scholar
Vos, M.S. & De Haes, J.C.J.M. (2007). Denial in cancer patients: An explorative review. Psychooncology 16, 12–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed