ReviewSocial science & medicine (1982)2015
Drugs, cancer and end-of-life care: a case study of pharmaceuticalization?
Review in Social science & medicine (1982), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers, 2 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
23 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Overall Survival Benefits of Cancer Drugs Approved in China From 2005 to 2020.JAMA network open · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Scoping review of anticancer drug utilization in lung cancer patients at the end of life.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2025Article
- Patients' psychosocial attributes and aggressiveness of cancer treatments near the end of life.The oncologist · 2025Article
- UK national newspapers' representation of cancer patients and their care during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic: Invoking and undermining solidarity?Sociology of health & illness · 2024Article
- Frequency of anticancer drug use at the end of life: a scoping review.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2024Article
- Cancer medicines: a private vice for public benefit?Ecancermedicalscience · 2024Article
- Cancer Drugs Reimbursed with Limited Evidence on Overall Survival and Quality of Life: Do Follow-Up Studies Confirm Patient Benefits?Clinical drug investigation · 2023Review
- Unsettling the treatment imperative? Chemotherapy decision-making in the wake of genomic techniques.Sociology of health & illness · 2023Article
- Assessment of the clinical and cost-effectiveness evidence in the reimbursement decisions of new cancer drugs.ESMO open · 2022Article
- Recommending Unfunded Innovative Cancer Therapies: Ethical vs. Clinical Perspectives among Oncologists on a Public Healthcare System-A Mixed-Methods Study.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2021Article
- Article
- Relationship Dynamics Underlying Cancer Overtreatment in Advanced Cancer Patients From an Oncologist Point of View.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Accessing targeted therapies for cancer: self and collective advocacy alongside and beyond mainstream cancer charities.New genetics and society · 2021Article
- Clinical characteristics and outcomes of cancer patients requiring intensive care unit admission: a prospective study.Journal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2018Article
- Availability of evidence of benefits on overall survival and quality of life of cancer drugs approved by European Medicines Agency: retrospective cohort study of drug approvals 2009-13.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2017Article
- Do patient access schemes for high-cost cancer drugs deliver value to society?-lessons from the NHS Cancer Drugs Fund.Annals of oncology : official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology · 2017Review
- Kinase inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies in oncology: clinical implications.Nature reviews. Clinical oncology · 2016Review
- Health policy: Putting a price on cancer.Nature reviews. Clinical oncology · 2016Article
- Population-based trends in systemic therapy use and cost for cancer patients in the last year of life.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
There is evidence from some countries of a trend towards increasingly aggressive pharmacological treatment of patients with advanced, incurable cancer. To what extent should this be understood as a progressive development in which technological innovations address previously unmet needs, or is a significant amount of this expansion explained by futile or even harmful treatment? In this article it is argued that while some of this growth may be consistent with a progressive account of medicines consumption, part of the expansion is constituted by the inappropriate and overly aggressive use of drugs. Such use is often explained in terms of individual patient consumerism and/or factors to do with physician behaviour. Whilst acknowledging the role of physicians and patients' expectations, this paper, drawing on empirical research conducted in the US, the EU and the UK, examines the extent to which upstream factors shape expectations and drive pharmaceuticalisation, and explores the value of this concept as an analytical tool.
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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.