Breaking the News

Should a patient be told that he has cancer? Doctors are still arguing the point. In the current Surgery, Dr. William D. Kelly of the University of Minnesota Medical School and Dr. Stanley R. Friesen of the University of Kansas report that most patients prefer to hear the bad news.

Drs. Kelly & Friesen questioned 200 people, 100 of whom had cancer. Of the 100 cancerous patients, 85 said that they knew it already; 15 said that they hadn't known about it. Of the 100, 89 said that they preferred to know, 6 wished they had not been told, 5 were undecided. Asked whether everybody with cancer should be told, 73 of the 100 said yes.

Of the 100 people who were not known to have cancer, 82 wanted to be told if they developed the disease, 14 did not want to be told, 4 were uncertain.

In Santa Barbara, Calif, last week, Mrs. Maude Louise Gilpatric, 52, wife of Author John Guy ("Mr. Glencannon") Gilpatric, found out from her doctor that she had a breast tumor. The Gilpatrics had been married for 30 years, and friends said they were an unusually devoted couple.

Author Gilpatric, whose long series of Saturday. Evening Post short stories about the walrus-mustached, Scotch-drinking Mr. Glencannon have entertained U.S. readers for more than two decades, learned from the doctor that the tumor was malignant. Then, police said, he got out a .32-caliber pistol, shot and killed her, then killed himself.

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