Trial reportJournal of pain and symptom management2021
The Effect of Disclosing Life Expectancy Information on Patients' Prognostic Understanding: Secondary Outcomes From a Multicenter Randomized Trial of a Palliative Chemotherapy Educational Intervention.
Trial report in Journal of pain and symptom management, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 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
8 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Prognostic understanding interventions in patients with advanced cancer: a systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Interventions to Improve Prognostic Understanding in Advanced Stages of Life-Limiting Illness: A Systematic Review.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2022Pooled it
- Perceived Value of Transfusion Access and Hospice Services Among Patients With Blood Cancers.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- Review
- 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
- Accuracy of curability expectations in patients with gastrointestinal cancers.Cancer medicine · 2023Article
- Effects of an Oncology Nurse-Led, Primary Palliative Care Intervention (CONNECT) on Illness Expectations Among Patients With Advanced Cancer.JCO oncology practice · 2022Article
- Informed consent for genetic testing in hematology.Hematology. American Society of Hematology. Education Program · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
contextMany advanced patients with cancer have unrealistic prognostic expectations.
objectivesWe tested whether offering life expectancy (LE) statistics within palliative chemotherapy (PC) education promotes realistic expectations.
methodsIn this multicenter trial, patients with advanced colorectal and pancreatic cancers initiating first or second line PC were randomized to usual care versus a PC educational tool with optional LE information. Surveys at two weeks and three months assessed patients' review of the LE module and their reactions; at three months, patients estimated their LE and reported occurrence of prognosis and end-of-life (EOL) discussions. Wilcoxon tests and proportional odds models evaluated between-arm differences in LE self-estimates, and how realistic those estimates were (based on cancer type and line of treatment).
resultsFrom 2015 to 2017, 92 patients were randomized to the intervention and 94 to usual care. At baseline most patients (80.9%) wanted "a lot" or "as much information as possible" about the impact of chemotherapy on LE. Among patients randomized to the intervention, 52.0% reviewed the LE module by two weeks and 66.7% by three months-of whom 88.2% reported the information was important, 31.4% reported it was upsetting, and 3.9% regretted reviewing it. Overall, patients' LE self-estimates were very optimistic; 71.4% of patients with colorectal cancer estimated greater than five years; 50% pancreatic patients estimated greater than two years. The intervention had no effect on the length or realism of patients' LE self-estimates, or on the occurrence of prognostic or EOL discussions.
conclusionsOffering LE information within a PC educational intervention had no effect on patients' prognostic expectations.
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