Clinicans warned about clinical trials

HAMILTON, Ontario, Nov 1, 2005 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Researchers at Canada's McMaster University suggest clinicians view with skepticism results of clinical trials stopped early because of apparent benefit.

Dr. Victor Montori and colleagues at the Hamilton, Ontario, school conducted a review of the medical literature to identify randomized clinical trials that were halted earlier than planned because of results favoring the experimental intervention.

"Of 143 RCTs stopped early for benefit, the majority (92) were published in five high-impact medical journals," the authors found, noting the proportion of all clinical trials stopped early for benefit increased from 0.5 percent in 1990-1994 to 1.2 percent in 2000-2004.

The authors concluded: "RCTs stopped early for benefit are becoming more common, often fail to adequately report relevant information about the decision to stop early, and show implausibly large treatment effects, particularly when the number of events is small. These findings suggest clinicians should view the results of such trials with skepticism."

The study appears in the Nov. 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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