[Communication with palliative care patients: truth and hope--a contradiction?]

Especially in western countries an open communication with cancer patients has gained increasing importance in the last years. Balancing between truth and hope in view of bad prognosis presents a special challenge. Oncologists have the responsibility and duty of truthful disclosure. On the other hand they have to accept the patients handling with given information and to respect that sometimes patients do not want to know the whole truth. In this paper the difficulties to prevent hope and the importance of an individualized and empathic care will be discussed on the basis of a case report.