Time to full publication of studies of anti-cancer medicines for breast cancer, and the potential for publication bias: a short systematic review

Takeda A, Loveman E, Harris P, Hartwell D, Welch K
Record ID 32007000888
English
Authors' objectives: To identify the expected delay between publication of conference abstracts and full publication of results from trials of new anti-cancer agents for breast cancer and to identify whether there are any apparent biases in publication and reporting.
Authors' recommendations: It was surprising that only three of the 18 relevant RCTs had one or more full papers that reported the same outcome measures (and stage of analysis) as an earlier conference abstract. However, a limitation of this review is the small number of studies included. With a larger sample size than that in the present report, investigation into the effect of publication delay on decision-making might be feasible. Future research should include extension of this work to other anti-cancer drugs and investigation into the reasons for lengthy delays to full publication noted for some trials.
Details
Project Status: Completed
URL for project: http://www.nets.nihr.ac.uk/projects/hta/075501
Year Published: 2008
URL for published report: http://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/hta/hta12320/#/abstract
English language abstract: An English language summary is available
Publication Type: Not Assigned
Country: England, United Kingdom
MeSH Terms
  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Periodicals as Topic
  • Publication Bias
  • Time Factors
  • Breast Neoplasms
  • Publishing
Contact
Organisation Name: NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme
Contact Address: NIHR Journals Library, National Institute for Health and Care Research, Evaluation, Trials and Studies Coordinating Centre, Alpha House, University of Southampton Science Park, Southampton SO16 7NS, UK
Contact Name: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk
Contact Email: journals.library@nihr.ac.uk
Copyright: <p>2009 Queen's Printer and Controller of HMSO</p>
This is a bibliographic record of a published health technology assessment from a member of INAHTA or other HTA producer. No evaluation of the quality of this assessment has been made for the HTA database.