The burden of cancer therapy on patients’ time is often overlooked. Building on the ‘time toxicity’ literature, we introduce the concept of time budgeting, viewing patients’ time as a limited, measurable resource that can be managed through treatment selection, pathway design and trial protocols.
We discuss the rationale, measurement challenges and implementation requirements to operationalize time budgeting in cancer care. Access to this article via Institution of Civil Engineers Library is not available.
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Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology published a clinical update in Oncology on 21 Apr 2026.
The item focuses on Time as an unmeasured ‘dose’ in oncology: introducing time budgeting as a design principle for cancer care.
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