Gender bias in shared decision‐making among cancer care guidelines: A systematic review

Abstract Background In cancer care, the promotion and implementation of shared decision‐making in clinical practice guidelines (CPG) and consensus statements may have potential differences by gender. Objective To systematically analyse recommendations concerning shared decision‐making in CPGs and consensus statements for the most frequent cancers exclusively among males (prostate) and females (endometrial). Search Strategy We prospectively registered the protocol at PROSPERO (ID: RD42021241127). MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus and online sources (8 guideline databases and 65 professional society websites) were searched independently by two reviewers, without language restrictions. Inclusion Criteria CPGs and consensus statements about the diagnosis or treatment of prostate and endometrial cancers were included from January 2015 to August 2021. Data Extraction and Synthesis Quality assessment deployed a previously developed 31‐item tool and differences between the two cancers analysed. Main Results A total of 176 documents met inclusion criteria, 97 for prostate cancer (84 CPGs and 13 consensus statements) and 79 for endometrial cancer (67 CPGs and 12 consensus statements). Shared decision‐making was recommended more often in prostate cancer guidelines compared to endometrial cancer (46/97 vs. 13/79, 47.4% vs. 16.5%; p