Stopping Randomized Trials Early for Benefit and Estimation of Treatment Effects: Systematic Review and Meta-Regression Analysis
Creator
Bassler, Dirk
Briel, Matthias
Montori, Victor M
Lane, Melanie
Glasziou, Paul
Zhou, Qi
Heels-Ansdell, Diane
Walter, Stephen D.
Guyatt, Gordon H.
Flynn, David N.
Elamin, Mohamed B.
Murad, Mohammad Hassan
Abu Elnour, Nisrin O.
Lampropulos, Julianna F.
Sood, Amit
Mullan, Rebecca J.
Erwin, Patricia J.
Bankhead, Clare R.
Perera, Rafael
Ruiz Culebro, Carolina
You, John J.
Mulla, Sohail M.
Kaur, Jagdeep
Nerenberg, Kara A.
Schünemann, Holger
Cook, Deborah J.
Lutz, Kristina
Ribic, Christine M.
Vale, Noah
Malaga, German
Akl, Elie A.
Ferreira-Gonzalez, Ignacio
Alonso-Coello, Pablo
Urrutia, Gerard
Kunz, Regina
Bucher, Heiner C.
Nordmann, Alain J.
Raatz, Heike
da Silva, Suzana Alves
Tuche, Fabio
Strahm, Brigitte
Djulbegovic, Benjamin
Adhikari, Neill K.J.
Mills, Edward J.
Gwadry-Sridhar, Femida
Kirpalani, Haresh
Soares, Heloisa P.
Karanicolas, Paul J.
Burns, Karen E.A.
Vandvik, Per Olav
Coto-Yglesias, Fernando
Chrispim, Pedro Paulo M.
Ramsay, Tim
Bibliographic Citation
JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 2010 March 24; 303(12): 1180-1187
Abstract
CONTEXT: Theory and simulation suggest that randomized controlled trials (RCTs) stopped early for benefit (truncated RCTs) systematically overestimate treatment effects for the outcome that precipitated early stopping. OBJECTIVE: To compare the treatment effect from truncated RCTs with that from meta-analyses of RCTs addressing the same question but not stopped early (nontruncated RCTs) and to explore factors associated with overestimates of effect. DATA SOURCES: Search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, Current Contents, and full-text journal content databases to identify truncated RCTs up to January 2007; search of MEDLINE, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects to identify systematic reviews from which individual RCTs were extracted up to January 2008. STUDY SELECTION: Selected studies were RCTs reported as having stopped early for benefit and matching nontruncated RCTs from systematic reviews. Independent reviewers with medical content expertise, working blinded to trial results, judged the eligibility of the nontruncated RCTs based on their similarity to the truncated RCTs. DATA EXTRACTION: Reviewers with methodological expertise conducted data extraction independently. RESULTS: The analysis included 91 truncated RCTs asking 63 different questions and 424 matching nontruncated RCTs. The pooled ratio of relative risks in truncated RCTs vs matching nontruncated RCTs was 0.71 (95% confidence interval, 0.65-0.77). This difference was independent of the presence of a statistical stopping rule and the methodological quality of the studies as assessed by allocation concealment and blinding. Large differences in treatment effect size between truncated and nontruncated RCTs (ratio of relative risks
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Date
2010-03-24Collections
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Randomized Trials Stopped Early for Benefit: A Systematic Review
Montori, Victor M.; Devereaux, P.J.; Adhikari, Neill K.J.; Burns, Karen E.A.; Eggert, Christoph H.; Briel, Matthias; Lacchetti, Christina; Leung, Teresa W.; Darling, Elizabeth; Bryant, Dianne M.; Bucher, Heiner C.; Schunemann, Holger J.; Meade, Maureen O.; Cook, Deborah J.; Erwin, Patricia J.; Sood, Amit; Sood, Richa; Lo, Benjamin; Thompson, Carly A.; Zhou, Qi; Mills, Edward; Guyatt, Gordon H. (2005-11-02)CONTEXT: Randomized clinical trials (RCTs) that stop earlier than planned because of apparent benefit often receive great attention and affect clinical practice. Their prevalence, the magnitude and plausibility of their ...