Value of clinical trials

✍ Scribed by F. Sinks, Lucius

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 18 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0098-1532
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-911x(199910)33:4<434::aid-mpo25>3.0.co;2-f

✦ Synopsis

To the Editor: The recent "Cancer Controversies" papers in Medical and Pediatric Oncology dealt with one of the issues concerning clinical trials, i.e., the debate over whether or not they are derivative. Other aspects should be emphasized, however.

The recent publication in Cancer by La Vecchia et al. very effectively demonstrates the value of clinical trials . The authors stress that not only have such trials provided the mechanism for testing medical hypotheses in man but, more importantly, randomized clinical investigations have been the single most important instrument in reducing the mortality in children with cancer. Moreover, the information presented by La Vecchia and colleagues is so powerful that it is hard for this investigator to accept the argument often advanced that clinical trials are not cost effective. D'Angio in his "Cancer Contro-versies" paper quotes the results of the National Wilms Tumor Study that demonstrate very clearly the cost effectiveness of this particular trial .