[Legal questions in radio-oncology. Demands on patient information and documentation of the therapy with examples of current legal cases concerning specialization in radiotherapy/radio-oncology].

Background: In recent years, also due to the media, the medical information a physician gives to his patients, the methods of medical treatment and their consequences have increasingly come to the attention of the general public. As a result, to avoid claims for compensation because of faulty treatment or even to evade prosecution, the demands on medical information given before or during treatment are getting greater and greater. Generally, claims for compensation are not based on the accusation of wrong treatment, because this accusation is difficult to prove. As a rule-as a way out of difficulties-these claims for compensation are based on the accusation of mistaken or incomplete information, because if one cannot prove any wrong treatment, faulty information can (nearly) always be proven.

Methods: Methodically, showing the principles that must be followed when giving information on radiotherapy and when documenting it, also taking examples of current legal cases into account. Short survey of the question of liability and the future importance of principles for medical treatment.

Conclusion: Every attending physician should feel obliged to pay attention to legal questions concerning medical subjects, though judgments on the contents and the extent of the information that must be given to patients are complex and difficult to understand for anybody not experienced in law. Only so the ever-increasing tendency of people to try to make financial profit on information that they consider mistaken or incomplete can be opposed and a lawsuit can be won, if it cannot be avoided.