ArticleSociology of health & illness2020
Uncertainty and certain death: the role of clinical trials in terminal cancer care.
Article in Sociology of health & illness, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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
6 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Development and initial validation of a scale assessing sources of decision hesitation in patients with lung cancer invited to participate in drug clinical trials.Asia-Pacific journal of oncology nursing · 2026Article
- Why Forensic Pathologists Maintain Uncertainty in Reporting Causes of Death: How Communicative Uncertainty Devices Shape Reasoning.Sociology of health & illness · 2025Article
- Barriers to timely transitions to comfort care in cancer patients: a review.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2025Review
- Shifting Expectations of Novel Immunotherapy Treatments in Oncology: Practitioners' and Patients' Calibration Work in Conditions of Uncertainty.Sociology of health & illness · 2025Article
- Between two pandemics: Older, gay men's experiences across HIV/AIDS and COVID-19.SSM. Qualitative research in health · 2023Article
- Sociological contributions to race and health: Diversifying the ontological and methodological agenda.Sociology of health & illness · 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
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
We consider uncertainty in relation to clinical trials for terminal non-small cell lung cancer, which is an aggressive and difficult to treat form of cancer. Using grounded theory to analyse 85 clinical interactions between doctors, patients and family members, we argue that uncertainty is a major source of tension for terminally ill patients, with individuals confronting a choice between transitioning to palliative care or volunteering for an experimental/trial medication that might postpone death. Regardless of their efficacy, patients must also consider how such experimental treatments might impact their quality-of-life. We argue that clinical trials produce uncertainty through (i) discussions about the efficacy of clinical trials; (ii) the physiological consequences of clinical trial medications; and (iii) the impact clinical trials have on patient's prognostic understanding of their terminal cancer. Accordingly, while study participants encounter high prognostic certainty (i.e. they have a fatal cancer), they nonetheless experience considerable uncertainty in relation to their participation in clinical trials.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic 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 Socratic graph.