How do you counsel patients struggling to decide if they wish to pursue an invasive diagnostic procedure to confirm a severe illness with poor prognosis and/or limited treatment options?  

First, I would reassure them that there is no right answer to this question. What we're trying to do is to come up with an answer that the patient can be psychologically at peace with. Second, I would begin to inquire about what we will do with the information, or, to put it differently, how the in...