When my father had cancer, I took time to visit him every day, and when he was very sick, I asked him, “What do you need?” My father replied after a moment of contemplation, “I need you to spend more time with me, nothing else.” My father has been gone for many months, but his voice and smile often appear in my mind. I am a surgeon who deals with cancer patients all day long, and I was reflecting on how much we know about the psychology of cancer patients besides their illness. What do they really need? There is no doubt that cancer brings us bad news. When we mention it, all we think about is death and the imminent end of our peaceful life. Before we have time to think about it, we are already overwhelmed by the shadow of death. So, the patient’s children are wondering: how to accompany the old man in his last life? The patient’s parents are wondering: how to fulfill the last wish of their children? The patient’s unit is thinking: how to arrange the rest of the work, how to satisfy the family and reassure the leaders afterwards …… All of them ignore the thoughts of the main character in these unfortunate events – the cancer patient. What are our patients thinking at this moment? What does what is happening in front of them really mean? In my experience of practicing medicine, the first reaction of most Chinese families I have seen to cancer is to hide it. They are convinced that cancer will be the hardest blow to the patient and that they cannot let their loved ones suffer such a blow under any circumstances. During my oncology clinic visits, many patients’ families had to instruct me in advance, “The patient doesn’t know anything, don’t tell him.” In fact, in today’s highly advanced information technology, it is impossible to conceal the condition from patients. They all think about the possible outcomes after they feel unwell. Most of the patients I contacted told me during the treatment process that they actually knew long ago that what they had might be cancer from their family members’ perverse expressions, excessive concern, and apparent excessive ease. It is evident that such well-intentioned concealment is futile. Should bad news be told to patients or not? My answer is: Yes! But there are many different ways to tell a patient bad news. First of all, it depends on the person: everyone has the same personality, occupation, age, experience, education level and mental type, and has different tolerance for bad news. If the patient we meet is Shi Guangrong (the hero of the TV series “The Burning Years”), a strong, decisive, and battle-hardened man like him, we can tell him the bad news directly. However, if the patient is already mentally fragile and suspicious, we have to pay extra attention to such patients. A sudden strong stimulus will certainly cause a strong mental reaction, which is a harm to them. At this time, we should avoid the seriousness and tell them gradually. In general, I think that cancer patients are much more tolerant of bad news than we have estimated. The doctor and the patient’s family should have adequate communication before determining when, where and how to tell the patient about the disease. We do not advocate never poking that window, it is an emotional waste. How to make the patient face up to the disease and take the initiative to overcome cancer together with the doctor is a real problem faced by doctors and families as well as patients. Highly qualified doctors with professional training should play the main role of delivering bad news. Cancer patients often become the focus of attention at home immediately after diagnosis, with family members providing all material help and taking care of them in every way possible. But what the patient needs most is not flowers, nutritional supplements, anti-cancer remedies, isolated “comfort” and delicious meals, but love! The relatives of the patients, because they are busy with their work, often make the mistake of expressing their love by means of money, but they do not know that these sudden care and change of environment will actually bring more fear to the patients, because at this time, in their opinion, these are the footsteps of people to send them off. There is no doubt that these concerns are a form of love, but we should express them with sincerity and use a rational approach to recognize the patient’s emotional needs. What the patients need at this time is understanding, and what their hobbled bodies need because of illness is strong support. We should spend time to communicate and talk with them; to care with sincerity, to understand with rationality, and to treat with science. Believe in the power of love. It is futile to “hide in good faith” and useless to accumulate material things, but it is possible to face cancer sincerely and enter the hearts of cancer patients sincerely!