High-Dose Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

To the Editor: The conclusion drawn by Rodenhuis et al. (July 3 issue) 1 — that high-dose therapy improves relapse-free survival among patients with 10 or more positive nodes — is untenable. The authors failed to apply the method specified in their Statistical Analysis section — namely, the use of t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe New England journal of medicine Vol. 349; no. 15; pp. 1476 - 1479
Main Authors Wheatley, Keith, Gray, Richard G, Ives, Natalie J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Massachusetts Medical Society 09.10.2003
Subjects
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols - administration & dosage
Breast Neoplasms - drug therapy
Data Interpretation, Statistical
False Positive Reactions
Humans
Lymphatic Metastasis
Meta-Analysis as Topic
Neoplasm Recurrence, Local - prevention & control
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Summary:To the Editor: The conclusion drawn by Rodenhuis et al. (July 3 issue) 1 — that high-dose therapy improves relapse-free survival among patients with 10 or more positive nodes — is untenable. The authors failed to apply the method specified in their Statistical Analysis section — namely, the use of tests for interaction to evaluate differences in the treatment effect within subgroups. Such analysis does not provide good evidence that there is greater benefit for patients with 10 or more positive nodes than for those with fewer than 10. The P values in individual subgroups are unimportant; the P value for . . .
Bibliography:SourceType-Other Sources-1
content type line 63
ObjectType-Correspondence-1
ObjectType-Commentary-2
ISSN:0028-4793
1533-4406
DOI:10.1056/NEJM200310093491515