Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology
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In the past, recommendations on how to break the bad news of a cancer diagnosis have been based on expert opinion. Recently, consensus-based guidelines for medical practitioners have been developed. The objective of this work is to investigate patient preferences for communication practices and to identify any disparities between these guidelines, patient preferences and patient recollections of hearing their diagnosis. ⋯ Suggestions are offered to help overcome the disparities identified between recommendations and patients' preferences when a diagnosis of cancer is being communicated.