In my anecdotal experience, giving patients the brutal facts about experimental cancer treatments doesn't shift their decisions much. Regardless of the exact o

In my anecdotal experience, giving patients the brutal facts about experimental cancer treatments doesn't shift their decisions much. Regardless of the exact odds, some people are predisposed to fight long odds with painful treatment, and some are predisposed to stop fighting and optimize quality of life. Both choices are legitimate and it's not worth bending the truth one iota to try and get more research subjects (or to bend it the other way to avoid "false hope"). Most lying in this context is driven by the speaker's (partially unconscious) desire to avoid short-term social tension.