In this video on prostate cancer, Drs. Tewari (leader in prostate cancer research and surgery) and Schlegel (Department Chairman) of Cornell Urology review the process of receiving and delivering news to a patient.

Dr. Schlegel: When a patient first hears that they have a diagnosis of cancer they usually aren't ready to accept much more information at that point in time. Patients have a wide variety of different responses when they're first told that they have prostate cancer. Often they don't believe it. And they don't believe it because they don't have any symptoms. It's nothing that they've noticed before. Often they feel that they manage their health appropriately. They've exercised, they've had a proper diet. How can this possibly happen to them? So there's a level of disbelief that patients often have. I think as time goes on, a lot of men go ahead and try to get their hands around it and understand better where they are, what options they have, and then to move forward. Dr. Tewari: I don't think there is one set way to, kind of, deal with every patient in terms of their anxiety. Each individual is unique. They have their own feelings, their own family and own issues, and they combine them all together and some of them they expiate them and some of them they keep inside.