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Selection bias in clinical trails of anaplastic glioma
Author(s) -
Winger Michael J.,
Macdonald David R.,
Schold S. Clifford,
Cairncross J. Gregory
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.410260406
Subject(s) - glioma , medicine , anaplastic astrocytoma , attrition , clinical trial , oncology , selection bias , randomized controlled trial , survival analysis , retrospective cohort study , overall survival , surgery , pathology , astrocytoma , dentistry , cancer research
We report a retrospective analysis of survival, and attrition to a study, of patients with anaplastic glioma seen at a regional cancer center during its participation in a prospective randomized clinical trial. Median length of survival for all patients was 35 weeks. Median length of survival for study patients was 60 weeks. Study patients were not representative of all patients; they were younger and less disabled than the nonstudy patients. Survival predictions for patients with anaplastic glioma based on the results of clinical trials may be overly optimistic. Many trials study a nonrepresentative subset of patients with anaplastic glioma, excluding those who do poorly at the outset and those who have poor function.