Labels used by physicians and impact on patients
| Label category (similar terms) | Impact | Reported by patients | Perceived by physicians |
| Abnormal (atypical, dysplasia) | Relieved or reassured | – | They understand pretty good that their cells are not normal so they have to treat that. (16 family physician bladder) |
| Confused if it is cancer | I don’t know what an atypical squamous cell is, so I was really confused. (14 patient cervix) | The biggest question is, what do you mean by abnormal? Does this mean I have cancer? (19 OB/GYN cervix) | |
| Anxious about severity or health implications | We know that it’s not easy to cancer to cure, so I felt like I’m going to die … I felt bad, I cried. (15 patient cervix) | I think it is a very individual response and I think patients who are very worried about cancer or who have health anxiety are generally speaking kind of anxious regardless of what we tell them or what the diagnosis is right? (18 OB/GYN cervix) | |
| Precursor to cancer (precancer, preinvasive cancer, stage 0) | Relieved or reassured | – | I think it’s generally relatively well received, and I think for the most part they understand that … I haven’t had anybody react really badly to that sort of terminology. (20 gynecologic oncologist cervix) |
| Confused if it is cancer | What does that mean? What is the prognosis? Where do you go from here? (11 patient bladder) That was ambiguous and I do not really know what that means. (13 patient cervix) | The patients do ask me, well does it mean that we say Stage 0? (27 urologist bladder) | |
| Anxious about severity or health implications | Definitely fearful. I had never had an abnormal pap before so in the moment it was much scarier than what the outcome ended up being. (10 patient cervix) | Some people tear up a little bit if they’re really worried about it and I tell them it is what we were worried about. (20 gynecologic oncologist cervix) | |
| Cancer (mass, tumour, cancerous tumour, low-grade cancer, low-risk cancer, signs of cancer, non-aggressive cancer, non-invasive cancer, adenocarcinoma) | Relieved or reassured | – | People (with Grade Group 1 prostate cancer) take the visit as an acknowledgment of a lower-risk situation that requires monitoring. (25 urologist prostate) I find that they’re quite relieved that it’s not being aggressive or a muscle invasive (bladder) tumor. (23 urologic oncologist bladder) |
| Shocked | The first thing that popped into my head was, oh crap I have cancer. I was shocked. I was stunned. (07 patient bladder) That was shocking news because the only words I heard was you’re diagnosed with prostate cancer. (02 patient prostate) | Generally speaking, when you tell them it’s cancer, the first thing is shock. (27 urologist bladder) | |
| Confused if it is cancer | Is it precancer or cancer when it’s low-grade non-invasive? (08 patient bladder) That was confusing and scary because you know that you have cancer but at the same time, the doctor tells you don’t do anything. (05 patient prostate) | So it is not an uncommon thing for people to wonder if they have to be declaring that they have cancer of if they believe that their life insurance or travel insurance for snowbirds will be compromised by their label. (25 urologist prostate) | |
| Anxious about severity or health implications | To me, that’s just a big word and scared the crap out of me. (07 patient bladder) Cancer’s quite a powerful word. It’s like the nuclear bomb. You think right away of how much longer you have to live. (03 patient prostate) | Some have significant anxiety and its very detrimental to their mental and physical health due to fear of what the cancer could do to them. (28 urologic oncologist prostate) |