INTRODUCTION
Among various types of pediatricians, pediatric hematologist-oncologists
(PHOs) would receive the largest amount of payments from pharmaceutical
companies.1 Plausible explanation of this is the
increasing emergences of new oncology drugs over the past two decades.
In addition, the entire pediatrics fields has been characterized by the
lack of evidence in patients’ care and subsequent off-label
prescribing,2 which means that the field is likely to
be susceptible to such financial relationships with pharmaceutical
companies. Thus, proper management of financial conflicts of interests
(FCOIs) is specifically essential for PHOs.3 Further,
oncologists and hematologists were increasingly targeted by the
pharmaceutical companies through the several years.4,5This study aimed to elucidate a magnitude of pharmaceutical payments
among Japanese PHOs certificated by the Japanese Society of Pediatric
Hematology/Oncology (JSPHO).