CLINICAL CANCER-RESEARCH - SOME ASPECTS ON DOCTORS ATTITUDES TO INFORMING PARTICIPANTS

With the aim to investigate the information policy of oncologists when recruiting patients for clinical trials a postal questionnaire was se nt to 412 members of the Swedish Society of Oncology (response rate 74 %). Depending on the situation, 20-40% of the doctors perceive that ra ndomization before consent is an acceptable procedure. A majority of t he physicians maintain that cancer patients are able to cope with adeq uate information but 45% of the doctors fear that the patients may wit hdraw from participating if they are adequately informed. It seems to be important to study the relationship between the quality of informat ion given to participants and the motives they have for accepting or d eclining to participate.