Reading and assessing reports of treatment studies in oncology.
Rapid advances in tumor biology, immunology, genomics, and technology give physicians great hopes for providing patients with better chances in the struggle against cancer. The pace of progress will be slowed, however, if we do not have clear answers regarding which treatments work and do not work. Such answers come from carefully designed, randomized, clinical trials. Such trials require infrastructure, commitment, cooperation, time, and money, and they provide little fame. They are, however, an invaluable contribution of the medical profession to their patients, to their next generation of colleagues, and to future patients. Randomized clinical trials that answer important medical questions definitively should be supported, participated in, and demanded by surgeons and oncologists.
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Biometric Research Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D018401:Sample Size