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Religious beliefs can profoundly influence patients' reactions to dire diagnoses: Clinicians can tell stories about this subject, but little evidence-based data exists. Researchers surveyed cancer patients who were participating in a nationwide U.S. study on coping mechanisms to correlate religious beliefs with understanding of prognosis. Patients were primarily white (85%) and female (66%) with diagnoses of late-stage lung (32%), gastrointestinal (27%), or other cancer. All had oncologist-estimated life expectancies of less than 6 months, and about 25% recently had received news of cancer progression.
Among these patients, religious belief in miracles, as assessed by a standard 5-point “miracle” scale, was strong, with more than half agreei…