The patient and his doctors assumed that it would be kidney failure that killed him.

Accordingly, patients and their doctors commonly assume that the best therapy is rest.

Yet patients often assume the right to die and expect physicians' help in carrying out their wishes.

"The patient should not assume that no news is good news."

Still, another expert stresses that patients should not assume chest X-rays are useless.

The patient may assume that the doctor knows everything.

"I think that often patients assume that any adverse event is due to error," he said.

For years, patients and many doctors assumed that a colonoscopy was a colonoscopy.

Doctors and patients have assumed, for example, that small tumors are more treatable.