How to convey a diagnosis of skin cancer - patient preferences

Telling a patient that they have cancer is conventionally undertaken face-to-face^1,2,3 and there are several government publications which stress that ‘how’ the patient is informed of their diagnosis is a crucial area^4,5,6,, there are however no official guidelines. Headlines such as “Staff at NHS Trust rebuked for breaking bad news to patients over the phone” ⁷ suggest that many people would not support using the telephone or letter as a communication tool. We see approximately 1500 patients annually where skin cancer is a possible diagnosis. Bringing back every patient after biopsy is unworkable and for those with benign or low grade pathology, unnecessary.

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