SynthesisQuality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation2020
Communicating treatment risks and benefits to cancer patients: a systematic review of communication methods.
Synthesis in Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 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
25 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Communication and support of patients and caregivers in chronic cancer care: ESMO Clinical Practice Guideline.ESMO open · 2024Guideline
- Strengths and pitfalls of NNT and NNH in early breast cancer escalation trials.Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland) · 2026Article
- Outcomes That Matter in Gastrointestinal Cancer Care: A Focus Group Study of Patient-Centred Outcomes Identified by Patients and Care Partners.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Article
- Scoring Physician Risk Communication in Prostate Cancer Using Large Language Models.Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing. Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing · 2026Article
- Scoring Physician Risk Communication in Prostate Cancer Using Large Language Models.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Thematic Analysis of Clinician Documentation Surrounding Treatment Discussions and Decision-Making in Patients With Desmoid Tumors.Cancer medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring the MAPPING application to facilitate risk communication and shared decision-making between physicians and patients with gynaecological cancer.BMJ open quality · 2024Observational
- Balancing risks and rewards: How hematologists discuss uncertainty in allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation outcomes.Patient education and counseling · 2024Article
- Use of Persuasive Language in Communication of Risk during Prostate Cancer Treatment Consultations.Medical decision making : an international journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making · 2024Article
- Information Needs in Patients with Potentially Curable Gastroesophageal Cancer.Digestive surgery · 2024Article
- Article
- Towards Agility in Breast Cancer Treatment Principles as Adopted from Agile Software Engineering.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2024Article
- Patient perceptions of altering chemotherapy treatment due to peripheral neuropathy.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2023Article
- Effect of a prediction tool and communication skills training on communication of treatment outcomes: a multicenter stepped wedge clinical trial (the SOURCE trial).EClinicalMedicine · 2023Article
- Thyroid Cancer Risk Communication in Patients with Thyroid Nodules.Journal of cancer education : the official journal of the American Association for Cancer Education · 2023Article
- Communication of anticancer drug benefits and related uncertainties to patients and clinicians: document analysis of regulated information on prescription drugs in Europe.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023Article
- myBeST-A Web-Based Survival Prognostic Tool for Women with Breast Cancer in Malaysia: Development Process and Preliminary Validation Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Cocreation with Dutch patients of decision-relevant information to support shared decision-making about adjuvant treatment in breast cancer care.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2022Article
- A web-based personalized decision support tool for patients diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ: development, content evaluation, and usability testing.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2022Article
- Dementia risk communication. A user manual for Brain Health Services-part 3 of 6.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeCancer patients are increasingly involved in decision-making processes. Hence, clinicians need to inform patients about the risks and benefits of different treatment options in order for patients to make well informed decisions. The aim of this review is to determine the effects of methods of communicating prognostic information about (1) disease progression (survival, progression, recurrence and remission), (2) side effects and complications and (3) health-related quality of life (HRQL) on cognitive, affective and behavioral outcomes in cancer patients.
methodsA literature search was performed to select articles that were published up to November 2019 and that examined verbal and/or visual risk communication interventions in an oncological clinical setting.
resultsThe search yielded 14,875 studies; 28 studies were ultimately included. For disease progression information, we found that framing affects treatment choice. Furthermore, limiting the amount of progression information in a graphical display could benefit patients' understanding of risks and benefits. For prognostic information about side effects and complications, precise and defined risk information was better understood than information presented in words. When displaying HRQL data, no consensus was found on which graph type to use.
conclusionGreat heterogeneity in the results and methodology and in the compared communication formats precluded us from drawing any further conclusions. Practical implications for clinicians are to consider the effects that different types of framing might have on the patient and to not rely exclusively on words to describe risks, but rather include at least some form of numbers or visualization.
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.