The culture of faith and hope. Patients' justifications for their high estimations of expected therapeutic benefit when enrolling in early phase oncology trials (abstract)

BACKGROUND:
Patients' estimates of their chances of therapeutic benefit from participation in early phase trials greatly exceed historical data. Ethicists worry that this therapeutic misestimation undermines the validity of informed consent.

CONCLUSIONS:
Expressions of high expected therapeutic benefit had little to do with reporting knowledge and more to do with expressing optimism. These results have implications for understanding how to obtain valid consent from participants in early phase clinical trials.