For a complex issue that can be emotionally vexing for all those involved, particularly when disagreements around diagnosis or treatment surface, the research on patient-requested second opinions is not extensive.

The answer to perhaps the most important question of all – their accuracy when it comes to follow-up – is not generally known.

It is probably for these reasons that a new Australian study examining the requests made by families of paediatric oncology patients at Sydney Children’s Hospital suggests that doctors want help.

Although relatively small in scale, it is only the second study in the context of paediatric oncology, with the first published back in 2014 by doctors in Israel, finding that 25% of parents were opting for a second opinion on their child’s diagnosis.