ArticleThe oncologist2011
Quantity, design, and scope of the palliative oncology literature.
Article in The oncologist, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 3 of them syntheses 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
33 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Toward a socio-spiritual approach? A mixed-methods systematic review on the social and spiritual needs of patients in the palliative phase of their illness.Palliative medicine · 2021Pooled it
- Clinical trials in palliative care: a systematic review of their methodological characteristics and of the quality of their reporting.BMC palliative care · 2017Pooled it
- Integration of oncology and palliative care: a systematic review.The oncologist · 2015Pooled it
- Nutrition in palliative care at the end of life: Bibliometric and network analysis until 2024.Medicine · 2025Article
- Off-label drug use in palliative medicine: Delphi study for the consensus of evidence-based treatment recommendations.Palliative medicine · 2025Article
- Creating more comparable cohorts in observational palliative care studies: A proposed framework to improve applicability and replicability of research.Palliative medicine · 2024Article
- Successful Strategies and Areas of Improvement-Lessons Learned from Design and Conduction of a Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial in Palliative Care, 'Palliative-D'.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Article
- Optimal Supportive Care for Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer According to Their Disease Progression Phase.JCO oncology practice · 2021Review
- The Impact of International Research Collaborations on the Citation Metrics and the Scientific Potential of South American Palliative Care Research: Bibliometric Analysis.Annals of global health · 2021Article
- What should we report? Lessons learnt from the development and implementation of serious adverse event reporting procedures in non-pharmacological trials in palliative care.BMC palliative care · 2021Review
- Article
- Characteristics and impact of the most-cited palliative oncology studies from 1995 to 2016.BMC cancer · 2018Article
- Improving patient and caregiver outcomes in oncology: Team-based, timely, and targeted palliative care.CA: a cancer journal for clinicians · 2018Review
- Introducing PALETTE: an iterative method for conducting a literature search for a review in palliative care.BMC palliative care · 2018Article
- The 'critical mass' survey of palliative care programme at ESMO designated centres of integrated oncology and palliative care.Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology · 2017Article
- State of Research on Palliative Care in Heart Failure as Evidenced by Published Literature, Conference Proceedings, and NIH Funding.Journal of cardiac failure · 2017Review
- How far along the disease trajectory? An examination of the time-related patient characteristics in the palliative oncology literature.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2016Article
- Integrating palliative care into the trajectory of cancer care.Nature reviews. Clinical oncology · 2016Review
- The last days of life: symptom burden and impact on nutrition and hydration in cancer patients.Current opinion in supportive and palliative care · 2015Review
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.
Funding
Abstract
The current state of the palliative oncology literature is unclear. We examined and compared the quantity, research design, and research topics of palliative oncology publications in the first 6 months of 2004 with the first 6 months of 2009. We systematically searched MEDLINE, PsychInfo, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science, and CINAHL for original studies, review articles, and systematic reviews related to "palliative care" and "cancer" during the first 6 months of 2004 and 2009. Two physicians reviewed the literature independently and coded the study characteristics with high inter-rater reliability. We found a consistent decrease in the proportion of oncology studies related to palliative care between 2004 and 2009, despite an absolute increase in the total number of palliative oncology studies. Combining the two time periods, the most common original study designs were case report/series, cross-sectional studies, and qualitative studies. Randomized controlled trials comprised 6% of all original studies. The most common topics were physical symptoms, health services research, and psychosocial issues. Communication, decision making, spirituality, education, and research methodologies all represented <5% of the literature. Comparing 2004 with 2009, we found an increase in the proportion of original studies among all palliative oncology publications but no significant difference in study design or research topic. We identified significant deficiencies in the quantity, design, and scope of the palliative oncology literature. Further effort and resources are necessary to improve the evidence base for this important field.
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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.