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This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously. (10) However, since the notion of unrealistic optimism may be unfamiliar to some.Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. The optimistic bias has been found to be present in a wide range of health-related contexts in which people are presented with risks and benefits. Unrealistic optimism, understood as a bias, has been extensively studied in social psychology. When optimism is the product of a bias of this kind, it is typically referred to as the "optimistic bias" or "unrealistic optimism." In the context of early-phase oncology research, unrealistic optimism may have negative consequences for behavior, and it may present an ethical problem for informed consent in clinical research. While it may reflect mere hopefulness and it may provide some psychological benefits, optimism may also be the product of a bias in which a person believes that she is more likely to experience positive outcomes (or less likely to experience negative outcomes) than others similarly situated. (8) Yet as research in social psychology has revealed, optimism is a complex phenomenon. (7) Indeed, it has been suggested that optimism is an effective means for patient-subjects to cope with anxiety or ward off depression. (6) It is sometimes claimed further that expressing optimism in the context of cancer research is a good thing. This assumption is the view that optimism presents no ethical problem for informed consent to participate in cancer research.
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Our findings raise questions about a common assumption that many cancer researchers have about optimism. Do optimistic expectations for benefit just reflect a disposition to think positively in difficult situations, or is something more going on? We investigated the possibility that optimistic expectations for benefit are tied to a bias that distorts, or has the potential to distort, how patients process information about the potential risks and benefits of clinical trials. (5) It remains unclear, however, what accounts for this optimism. (4) A third range of possibilities recently has begun to receive more attention: expectations for benefit from early-phase oncology trials may simply reflect the fact that patients are hopeful or optimistic about their participation in these trials. (3) Another often mentioned possibility is that patients enroll in early-phase cancer trials because they genuinely want to help researchers obtain scientific knowledge that might benefit future patients who suffer from the same disease. This is the so-called therapeutic misconception. (2) Why would patients agree to enroll in clinical trials that expose them to treatment interventions that offer relatively little prospect for direct therapeutic benefit? One possibility, much discussed over the past two decades, is that many patients fail to understand the nature and purpose of the research in which they agree to participate. This reality has given rise to much ethical concern.
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While it is possible that some of these trials provide benefit to patient-subjects, (1) it is widely recognized that early-phase trials are not designed to provide direct therapeutic benefit to those who participate in them. Early-phase oncology trials are vital for developing new and more effective therapies for treating cancers.