title: Is guideline adherence the key to increased survival in patients with breast cancer?
abstract: Recently, Varga et al. reported in an observational study that guideline adherence could prevent 56.3-78.9% of all deaths in patients with early onset breast cancer [Oncology 2010;78:189-195]. This would mean that nearly all deaths due to breast cancer can be avoided by guideline-adherent treatment. We argue that some methodological issues like immortal time bias or healthy adherer bias may have contributed to these implausible findings. However, the non-transparent reporting of the methods, especially regarding the operationalization of guideline adherence, hampers critical assessment of this study.
authors.forename: Falk
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Andersohn
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome