EQUATOR-Oncology: reducing the latitude of cancer trial design and reporting
Cet article présente des recommandations pour améliorer la qualité des publications scientifiques en cancérologie
Well-designed and appropriately reported clinical trials are essential to evaluate treatment efficacy and form the basis for regulatory approval of new cancer treatments, post-marketing funding decisions, and endorsement by the wider oncology community. In contrast, poorly designed or inadequately reported studies can impair the clinical relevance of these results. Inaccurate or unreproducible data can ill-advise on further study of new treatments, or may result in the inability to translate benefit observed in clinical trials into an improvement in patient outcome in routine practice. Problems which may influence the interpretation of trials include: the use of narrow eligibility criteria that limits generalisability, the use of surrogate end points that have not been validated as reflecting patient benefit, the reporting of statistically significant but clinically less meaningful results, the underestimation of toxicity, and biased reporting – both in the primary publication and by the media (Tannock et al, 2016). To ensure the highest fidelity in clinical research, it is important to have a framework for optimal design and reporting of clinical trials. Although a number of reporting criteria (Schulz et al, 2010; von Elm et al, 2007) have been developed and endorsed by journal editors and the research community, few have focused exclusively on oncology trials.