Does participating in a clinical trial directly improve a cancer patient’s treatment outcome? Although clinical trials are conducted to test experimental treatments for the benefit of future patients, some oncologists contend that cancer patients who enrol in trials experience better outcomes than non-participants a benefit known as a “trial effect.”
However, in a study published in Lancet, researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found little convincing evidence that such a trial effect exists.
The researchers reviewed 26 published studies that compared the outcomes of cancer patients enrolled in a clinical trial with those not enrolled. According to the researchers:
Although they didn’t detect an immediate benefit for study participants, the authors reaffirm the importance of trial participation, and they suggest that their findings should shift the emphasis on recruitment of trial patients.
Source: Stephen Joffe, Jeffrey Peppercorn, Jane Weeks and E. Francis Cook, Study questions whether cancer patients enrolled in clinical trials have better outcomes than non-participants, Lancet, January 24, 2004.
For text http://www.dfci.harvard.edu/abo/news/press/012304.asp
For more on Health Issues (Drug Research and Development) http://www.ncpa.org/iss/hea/
FMF Policy Bulletin\17 February 2004
