ReviewBMC cancer2007
External influences and priority-setting for anti-cancer agents: a case study of media coverage in adjuvant trastuzumab for breast cancer.
Review in BMC cancer, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Randomized Controlled Trials in Lung, Gastrointestinal, and Breast Cancers: An Overview of Global Research Activity.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2022Review
- Determinants of the Cancer Drug Funding Process in Canada.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2022Article
- Personalized Cancer Medicine in the Media: Sensationalism or Realistic Reporting?Journal of personalized medicine · 2021Article
- Describing Sources of Uncertainty in Cancer Drug Formulary Priority Setting across Canada.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2021Article
- Around the Tables - Contextual Factors in Healthcare Coverage Decisions Across Western Europe.International journal of health policy and management · 2020Article
- Understanding the reasons for provincial discordance in cancer drug funding-a survey of policymakers.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2018Article
- Access to High Cost Cancer Medicines Through the Lens of an Australian Senate Inquiry-Defining the "Goods" at Stake.Journal of bioethical inquiry · 2017Article
- Provincial elections and timing of cancer drug funding.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2016Article
- The politicization of oncology drug funding reviews in Canada.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2016Article
- Research output and the public health burden of cancer: is there any relationship?Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2016Article
- Drugs, cancer and end-of-life care: a case study of pharmaceuticalization?Social science & medicine (1982) · 2015Review
- Academics and competing interests in H1N1 influenza media reporting.Journal of epidemiology and community health · 2014Article
- Overcoming obstacles in accessing unfunded oral chemotherapy: physician experience and challenges.Journal of oncology practice · 2013Article
- Bevacizumab for advanced breast cancer: hope, hype, and hundreds of headlines.The oncologist · 2013Article
- The timing of drug funding announcements relative to elections: a case study involving dementia medications.PloS one · 2013Article
- Media influence on Herceptin subsidization in Australia: application of the rule of rescue?Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine · 2008Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSetting priorities for the funding of new anti-cancer agents is becoming increasingly complex. The funding of adjuvant trastuzumab for breast cancer has brought this dilemma to the fore. In this paper we review external factors that may influence decision-making bodies and present a case study of media response in Ontario, Canada to adjuvant trastuzumab for breast cancer.
methodsA comprehensive search of the databases of Canadian national and local newspapers and television was performed. Articles pertaining to trastuzumab in adjuvant breast cancer as well as 17 other anti-cancer drugs and indications were retrieved. The search period was from the date when individual trial results were announced to the date funding was made available in Ontario.
resultsDuring the 2.6 months between the release of the trastuzumab results to funding approval in Ontario, we identified 51 episodes of media coverage. For the 17 other drugs/indications (7 breast and 10 non-breast), the median time to funding approval was 31 months (range 14-46). Other recent major advances in oncology such as adjuvant vinorelbine/cisplatin for resected NSCLC and docetaxel for advanced prostate cancer received considerably less media attention (17 media reports for each) than trastuzumab. The median number of media reports for breast cancer drugs was 4.5 compared to 2.5 for non-breast cancer drugs (p = 0.56).
conclusionPriority-setting for novel anti-cancer agents is a complex process that tries to ensure fair use of constrained resources to fund therapies with the best evidence of clinical benefit. However, this process is subject to external factors including the influence of media, patient advocates, politicians, and industry. The data in this case study serve to illustrate the significant involvement one (or all) of these external factors may play in the debate over priority-setting.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.