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Objectives: Recent psychooncological literature evidences the multiple traumatic effects of cancer diagnosis disclosure but only few studies are concerned with the consequences of cancer diagnosis non-disclosure. The aims of this study were: to measure prevalence of cancer diagnosis non-disclosure, to analyze demographic, medical and psychosocial factors that may explain the non-disclosure of cancer diagnosis to patients and to compare cancer disclosure and non-disclosure in relation to study variables. Methods: According to the tumour location, our heterogenic, mixed sample includes 420 adult oncology patients, 342 with malignant and 78 with benign tumours (average age 51.95 years). 238 women and 185 men completed our questionnaire which included standard measures of depressive symptoms (BDI), hopelessness, ways of coping and negative life events. Results-conclusion: Our results clearly show that patients who are not informed about their cancer diagnosis are significantly more depressed, hopeless and with lower levels of problem-focused coping compared to patients who are informed. Also, patients who were not told about their cancer diagnosis tended to be older, with a mandatory education or less and living in small communities. The odds of not being personally informed about cancer diagnosis were highly increased by malignant cancer diseases, clinical, severe depression and lack of chemotherapy treatment. Data were controlled for the most relevant demographic, social and oncological factors. Based on our research, we advocate for the development of new patient-focused services in oncology in Romania. Social work can be one of the comprehensive support sources by providing psychosocial and practical support to cancer patients and their families
Keywords: cancer diseases, cancer diagnosis, non-disclosure, psychosocial factors, social work
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