title: Type and trends in outcomes research in breast cancer between 2000 and 2007.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Interest in outcomes research (OR) derives from the need to know the value and the effectiveness of health interventions, especially for oncology. We focused our research on OR in breast cancer, providing an overview of the trend of publications.
  
  
  METHODS
  We carried out a Medline search to retrieve all articles in English published from 2000 through 2007. The abstracts were reviewed and classified according to the research topics and the primary design of the trial.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We selected 405 articles: their number remained constant until 2003, rose during 2004-2005 and decreased during the last 2 years. The most common topic was surgery (n = 234), alone or in association with other interventions. The category more investigated was the process. Clinical outcomes, and among them disease-free survival, were more frequent than other outcomes. The median value of 2007 Impact Factor of the journals publishing the selected references was 2.466 (range 0.272-25.547) and the median value of Citation Index was 8 (range 0-143).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our research showed a decreasing interest in OR during the more recent years. We are hopeful that it will regenerate interest, particularly by the light of the funds allocated to the comparative effectiveness research in the United States.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Epidemiology, Consorzio Mario Negri Sud, S. Maria Imbaro, Italy. valentini@negrisud.it
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Valentini
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Milesi
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bettini
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tondini
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nicolucci
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D057186:Comparative Effectiveness Research / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000639:trends*; D016896:Treatment Outcome