Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2012 Sep;44(3):421-30.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2011.09.016. Epub 2012 Jul 7.

Reporting of funding sources and conflict of interest in the supportive and palliative oncology literature

David Hui  1 , Akhila Reddy, Henrique A Parsons, Eduardo Bruera
Affiliations

Reporting of funding sources and conflict of interest in the supportive and palliative oncology literature

David Hui et al. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2012 Sep.

Abstract

Context: The reporting of funding support and conflict of interest has not been examined in the supportive/palliative oncology literature.

Objectives: We examined the frequency of funding and conflict of interest reporting and various study characteristics associated with such reporting.

Methods: We systematically searched MEDLINE PubMed, PsycInfo, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science, and CINAHL for original studies related to palliative care and cancer in the first six months of 2004 and 2009. For each article, we reviewed the study design, research topic, journal type, and reporting of funding and conflict of interest.

Results: Three hundred forty-four (41%) and 504 (59%) of 848 articles were from 2004 and 2009, respectively. Five hundred two of 848 (59%) studies reported no funding sources, whereas 216 (26%), 70 (8%), 34 (4%), and 26 (3%) reported one, two, three, and four or more sources, respectively. Key funding sources included governmental agencies (n=182/848, 21%), philanthropic foundations (n=163/848, 19%), university departments (n=76/848, 9%), and industry (n=27/848, 3%). Conflict of interest was not reported in 436 of 848 (51%) studies, and only 94 of 848 (11%) explicitly stated no conflict of interest. Other than extramural funding, conflict of interest reporting of any kind was extremely rare (mostly less than 1%). Conflict of interest reporting increased between 2004 and 2009 (39% vs. 55%, P<0.001). Both funding and conflict of interest reporting were associated with prospective studies, larger sample sizes, nontherapeutic studies, North American authors, and publication in palliative care/oncology journals (P≤0.008 for all comparisons).

Conclusion: A majority of supportive/palliative oncology studies did not report funding sources and conflict of interest, raising the need for standardization.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Number of funding sources for supportive/palliative oncology publications (n = 848).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Tieman J, Sladek R, Currow D. Changes in the quantity and level of evidence of palliative and hospice care literature: the last century. J Clin Oncol. 2008;26:5679–5683. - PubMed
    1. McCrary SV, Anderson CB, Jakovljevic J, et al. A national survey of policies on disclosure of conflicts of interest in biomedical research. N Engl J Med. 2000;343:1621–1626. - PubMed
    1. Lathyris DN, Patsopoulos NA, Salanti G, Ioannidis JP. Industry sponsorship and selection of comparators in randomized clinical trials. Eur J Clin Invest. 2010;40:172–182. - PubMed
    1. Smith R. Conflicts of interest: how money clouds objectivity. J R Soc Med. 2006;99:292–297. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rose SL, Krzyzanowska MK, Joffe S. Relationships between authorship contributions and authors’ industry financial ties among oncology clinical trials. J Clin Oncol. 2010;28:1316–1321. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types