Attitudes of medical students and residents toward cancer.

Attitudes toward cancer and heart disease were evaluated in 99 freshmen medical students, 76 seniors, and 66 residents using the Cancer Attitude Survey and a Semantic Differential test. The Survey revealed a rise in positive attitudes towards patients' inner resources to cope with serious illness and toward personal immortality and a rise in negative attitudes toward early diagnosis of cancer as students progressed in their training. The Semantic Differential test demonstrated more negative attitudes toward cancer than heart disease in all groups (freshman, seniors, and residents in medicine, psychiatry, or surgery). The seniors had the most positive attitudes toward cancer and freshman the least positive attitudes. The residents had more positive attitudes than the freshmen but less positive attitudes than the seniors. The residents in psychiatry had more positive attitudes than the residents in medicine, who had more positive attitudes than the residents in surgery.