Answering the relatives of lung cancer patients.

Of 230 bronchial carcinoma patients, 30 underwent resection and 13 (5.6%) survived 5 years. Some of the domestic implications of the diagnosis were sought through study of the 200 non-surgically treated patients and by interviews with 191 of their relatives. Seventy-eight per cent of the relatives said that the illness had not been as bad as they had anticipated. Fifty-five per cent of patients died within 4 months of their first examination and 28.5% of relatives were unprepared for the suddenness of the death. Five per cent of patients died of a massive haemoptysis. For two-thirds of a subgroup of 56 patients, inability to get to the lavatory with help from one person, was a herald of death within 10 days. Some findings offered comfort for relatives living with a lung cancer patient: 41% of patients had no pain at all, 23.5% needed no treatment and 9.5% weakened and died very peacefully.