Breaking Bad News about Cancer to Adolescents and Young Adults: The French Experience

The announcement of a serious illness, like cancer, can be very stressful for adolescents and young adults, as well as for their parents. In view of this difficulty, the protection of patients' dignity and autonomy is a central concern of medical ethics. It was with this goal in mind that a French Announcement protocol was developed following the First French Convention for Cancer Patients (1998) and reaffirmed, in 2010, by the First French Convention for Child Cancer Patients and Their Families. Because the ethics literature on this subject is underdeveloped, an empirical study was conducted from 2012 to 2016 to explore patients' and parents' experience. This study concerns adolescents, young adults, their parents and their health care professionals. The objective of this article is to present the outcomes of the study, summarising the experience of patients, parents and professionals and outlining current practices in France.