<p>Healthcare professionals have a duty to provide information and support to patients at all stages of their cancer journey, both to ensure that they are able to give informed consent and that they are supported and empowered to cope with their diagnosis and treatment. Information and support is not an optional extra, but an integral part of holistic care. However, the audit of information-giving in a large Liverpool teaching hospital presented here shows that gaps still exist in information provision for patients on general wards, and that there are differences in nurses’ and patients’ perceptions about assessing and meeting information and support needs.</p>