oncologywatch

Parmar MK, Barthel FM, Sydes M, et al. Speeding up the evaluation of new agents in cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2008 Sep 3;100(17):1204-14. Epub 2008 Aug 26. PMID: 18728279

Responding to a slowdown in the number of new cancer treatments, the authors propose a multi-arm, multi-stage trial design as a way to evaluate treatments faster and more efficiently than current standard trial designs.

There are many steps in the process of developing and evaluating new therapies. Here, we discuss some critical components of this process and provide an impetus for an alternative approach.

• Acknowledge that Phase 2 Trials, as Currently Conducted, Are Not a Sufficiently Good Screen for Identifying Potentially Effective Therapies
• Accept that the Size of the Effect of Most New Therapies on Important Outcome Measures, Such As Overall and Disease-Specific Survival, Is Usually Modest
• Acknowledge That Only a Small Proportion of New Therapies Will Prove To Be Better Than Current Standard Therapies

OncologyWatch: Posts about free-access articles on aspects of oncology theory, practice and policy (about the blogger). This blog is not a source for medical advice.

Technorati tags:
oncology open access clinical trials

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A selection of open-access articles from NCBI "What’s New" results this month. Posts on individual papers to come.

• Abbasoglu O. Liver transplantation: yesterday, today and tomorrow. World J Gastroenterol. 2008 May 28;14(20):3117-22. Review. PMID: 18506914
• Abernethy AP, Wheeler JL, Fortner BV. A health economic model of breakthrough pain. Am J Manag Care. 2008 May;14(5 Suppl 1):S129-40. Review. PMID: 18611101
• Freedman LS, Kipnis V, Schatzkin A, Potischman N. Methods of epidemiology: evaluating the fat-breast cancer hypothesis–comparing dietary instruments and other developments. Cancer J. 2008 Mar-Apr;14(2):69-74. PMID: 18391610
• Jemal A, Siegel R, Ward E, et al. Cancer statistics, 2008. CA Cancer J Clin. 2008 Mar-Apr;58(2):71-96. Epub 2008 Feb 20. PMID: 18287387
• Saif MW. New developments in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Highlights from the "44th ASCO Annual Meeting". Chicago, IL, USA. May 30 - June 3, 2008. JOP. 2008 Jul 10;9(4):391-7. PMID: 18648128 [This issue of Journal of the Pancreas is devoted to the 2008 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.] 
• Tavoli A, Montazeri A, Roshan R, et al. Depression and quality of life in cancer patients with and without pain: the role of pain beliefs. BMC Cancer. 2008 Jun 21;8:177. PMID: 18570676
• Wittet S, Tsu V. Cervical cancer prevention and the Millennium Development Goals. Bull World Health Organ. 2008 Jun;86(6):488-90. PMID: 18568279

OncologyWatch: Posts about free-access articles on aspects of oncology theory, practice and policy (about the blogger). This blog is not a source for medical advice.

Technorati tags:
oncology open access

Comments and Links Welcome!