Trial reportSupportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer2010
Do patient attributes predict oncologist empathic responses and patient perceptions of empathy?
Trial report in Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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
9 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 30 citations in OpenAlex.
- Predictors of Physician Compassion, Empathy, and Related Constructs: a Systematic Review.Journal of general internal medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Empathy, access, and delays: determinants of oncology care satisfaction in Polish academic and nonacademic hospitals.The oncologist · 2026Article
- Medical students' experiences when empathizing with patients' emotional issues during a medical interview - a qualitative study.BMC medical education · 2022Article
- From Fear to Hopelessness: The Buffering Effect of Patient-Centered Communication in a Sample of Oncological Patients during COVID-19.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Patients' and Clinicians' Perceptions of Clinician-Expressed Empathy in Advanced Cancer Consultations and Associations with Patient Outcomes.Palliative medicine reports · 2020Article
- What risk of death would people take to be cured of HIV and why? A survey of people living with HIV.Journal of virus eradication · 2019Article
- Oncologists' responses to patient and caregiver negative emotions and patient perception of quality of communication: results from a multi-ethnic Asian setting.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2018Article
- In search of compassion: a new taxonomy of compassionate physician behaviours.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2015Article
- A medical oncologist's perspective on communication skills and burnout syndrome with psycho-oncological approach (to die with each patient one more time: the fate of the oncologists).Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2013Review
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 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeMost patients with advanced cancer experience negative emotion. When patients express emotions, oncologists rarely respond empathically. Oncologists may respond more empathically to some patients, and patients may perceive different levels of empathy and trust given past documentation of disparities in cancer care.
methodsWe audio-recorded 264 outpatient encounters between oncologists and patients with advanced cancer at three sites. We examined whether patient gender, age, race, marital status, education, economic security, and length of relationship with oncologist were related to oncologist empathic responses to patient's negative emotion and patient's perceptions of oncologist empathy and trust.
resultsHalf (51%) of the patients expressed a negative emotion. Oncologists sometimes responded with empathy (29%). Oncologists were equally empathic with all patients, except they were more empathic with patients with low economic security compared with those reporting high economic security (p = .002). Patients with low economic security viewed oncologists as more empathic (p = .06) compared with those with moderate security. Married patients also viewed oncologists as more empathic (p = .04). Patients who knew their oncologist for more than a year had more trust than patients who knew their oncologists for less time (p = .02).
conclusionsOncologists, in general, did not respond empathically to patient's negative emotion, and did this equally for most patients. Oncologists responded more empathically to patients who were less economically advantaged. In turn, patients with lower economic security perceived more empathy. Although oncologists need more education in responding empathically, they may not need to correct many biases in care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.