PMID: 11639655Apr 1, 1995Paper

"Nothing more to be done": palliative care versus experimental therapy in advanced cancer

Science in Context
I Löwy

Abstract

Patients suffering from advanced, incurable cancer often receive from their doctors proposals to enroll in a clinical trial of an experimental therapy. Experimental therapies are increasingly perceived not as a highly problematic approach but as a near-standard way to deal with incurable cancer. There are, however, important differences in the diffusion of these therapies in Western countries. The large diffusion of experimental therapies for malignant disease in the United States contrasts with the much more restricted diffusion of these therapies in the United Kingdom. The difference between the two reflects differences in the organization of health care in these countries and distinct patterns of the professionalization of medical oncology in America and in Britain. The high density and great autonomy of medical oncologists in the United States encourages there the diffusion of experimental therapies (regarded by some as expensive and inefficient); the lower density of these specialists in the United Kingdom and their task as consultants and not primary caregivers, favors the choice of more conservative (for some, too conservative) treatments. Theoretically, the decision as to whether patients suffering from advanced, incura...Continue Reading

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Citations

Nov 11, 2005·Clinical Trials : Journal of the Society for Clinical Trials·Charles M Heilig, Charles Weijer
Jun 6, 2003·European Journal of Cancer Care·K Cox, J McGarry

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