Research is needed to understand mental health effects of cancer at diagnosis, throughout treatment and the post-treatment phases, and in survivorship.

Introduction to the May 2017 issue on ethics in mental health and oncology.

The method of situational diagnosis can be used to separate ethical issues from relational dynamics and legal constraints in complex cases.

If a patient’s feelings become sources of resistance to treatment, clinicians need to know how to address these feelings’ influence on the therapeutic capacity of patient-clinician relationships.

Clinical trials should assess patients’ distress and test interventions to address it, just as they assess adverse events and test novel therapeutic agents.

Clinicians can help mitigate stigmatizing messages from hard-hitting ads.

Physicians have an ethical responsibility to caregivers whose psychological distress is caused by their experience of the patient’s illness and treatment.

Decision-making capacity can be preserved in patients with mental illness and should be formally assessed in the context of their values and past decisions.

Gender-concordant care requests involve principles of beneficence, respect, and fairness and, when they occur on rotations, require a team-based approach.

Damaged relationships with patients can be repaired by listening, empathizing, and setting clear limits and goals.