title: Reporting of uncertainty at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The annual meeting of the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) is designed to disseminate new scientific findings and technical advances to professionals. Best practices of scientific dissemination require that some level of uncertainty (or imprecision) is provided.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 279 scientific abstracts were selected for oral presentation in a clinical session at the 2013 ASTRO Annual Meeting. A random sample of these abstracts was reviewed to determine whether a 95% confidence interval (95% CI) or analogous measure of precision was provided for time-to-event analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A sample of 140 abstracts was reviewed. Of the 65 abstracts with Kaplan-Meier or cumulative incidence analyses, 6 included some measure of precision (6 of 65 = 9%; 95% CI, 2-16). Of the 43 abstracts reporting ratios for time-to-event analyses (eg, hazard ratio, risk ratio), 22 included some measure of precision (22 of 43 = 51%; 95% CI, 36-66).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Measures of precision are not provided in a significant percentage of abstracts selected for oral presentation at the Annual Meeting of ASTRO.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina. Electronic address: w.robert.lee@duke.edu.
authors.forename: W Robert
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000043:Abstracting and Indexing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D018787:Radiation Oncology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012955:Societies, Medical; D035501:Uncertainty; D014481:United States