The lessons of QUANTEC: recommendations for reporting and gathering data on dose-volume dependencies of treatment outcome.
The 16 clinical articles in this issue review the dose-volume dependence of toxicities of external beam radiotherapy. They are limited by the difficulty of synthesizing results from different publications. The major problems stem from incomplete reporting of results and use of incompatible or ambiguous endpoints. Here we specify these problems; give recommendations to authors, editors, and reviewers on standards of reporting; and provide methods of defining endpoints suitable for the dose-volume analysis of toxicity. Adopting these recommendations will facilitate meta-analysis and increase the utility of individual studies of the dependence of complications on dose distributions.
Jackson
Andrew
A
Department of Medical Physics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA. jacksona@mskcc.org
Marks
Lawrence B
LB
Bentzen
Søren M
SM
Eisbruch
Avraham
A
Yorke
Ellen D
ED
Ten Haken
Randal K
RK
Constine
Louis S
LS
Deasy
Joseph O
JO
D004307:Dose-Response Relationship, Radiation; D006801:Humans; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D011832:Radiation Injuries / Q000150:complications*; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016896:Treatment Outcome