Title: Problems of the announcement of cancer in the context of an inpatient follow-up in an oncological medicine department.

Abstract:

Nabhan Linda is a clinical psychologist specialized in oncology, bilingual in Arabic, graduated from the University of Paris Diderot in 2016 with already 3 years of experience at that time in psychiatry. Currently, I am working in an oncological medicine department at the private hospital La Montagne Lambert in Paris and working in private practice. Member of the French and French-speaking Society of Psycho-Oncology.

Biography:

In oncology, the announcement of cancer to a patient is protocolized by a series of examinations. Sometimes this moment is well apprehended, sometimes it is not. In both cases, whether the announcement is well made or not, we cannot anticipate or predict patients' reactions. A real coup de éclat in their material and psychic lives, the announcement is always a particularly sensitive moment. We will begin by talking about this period of the announcement of the illness and its psychic repercussions, then the question of the acceptance of the illness and finally we will go to the evolution of psychic movements. First of all, what is still very difficult today is to separate the idea of cancer from that of death. Although cancer is cured, it will be very difficult to talk about a cure from the outset. This is a point that seems to me to be quite central, that is to say that both at the psychological and medical level, we cannot anticipate or predict one hundred percent of the patient's reactions, whether a particular patient will react more or less well to the treatment or whether the announcement of the disease will be more or less well taken by the patient. The first challenge is to prepare the patient. But what does that really mean? Psychologically, there is an ethical issue at stake. As soon as we know the type of cancer, its progression, the possible treatments and the clinical condition of the patient, a certain pattern of management emerges. On a psychological level, we meet the patient in these conditions and we only have a photo image, the capture of the patient's reaction at that moment.