Historical control bias: adjuvant chemotherapy in esophageal cancer

Abstract

Results from historical controls are unreliable in detecting modest treatment benefits. Adjuvant chemotherapy in esophageal cancer should be tested within the tenets of randomized controlled trials with adequate-sample size to ascertain its efficacy.

Postoperative mortality following oesophagectomy and problems in reporting its rate

“…Patients referred from remote locations may be preselected by the referring physician or surgeon, in anticipation of a reasonable outcome, making it possible that younger patients are referred with earlier stages of disease. This is at least one reason why historical comparisons within an institution often lead to invalid conclusions about improvements in outcome 8 . Conversely, some specialist institutions might also attract particularly high-risk patients for consideration of surgery.…”

Cognitive behavioural therapy combined with the relapse-prevention medication acamprosate: are short-term treatment outcomes for alcohol dependence improved?

“…However, since the efficacy of acamprosate is established, the use of historical controls has useful application in assessing the impact of an additional treatment component (acamprosate) on an established intervention (CBT), in a service rather than research setting. We acknowledge that this design is likely to underestimate modest treatment effects and that there is less experimental control than with a randomized controlled trial [38].…”

Antisense Blockade of p21/WAF1 Decreases Radiation-Induced G2 Arrest in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

“…Although there have been some improvements in the short-term survival of patients undergoing esophageal resection for cancer, no increased survival has been demonstrated with adjuvant therapy [6,7]. Various chemotherapeutic regimens have been used, usually including some combination of 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin in addition to radiation [8].…”