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Table 4 Characteristics of included studies (n = 9)

From: Are cancer patients better off if they participate in clinical trials? A mixed methods study

Design of trial versus non-trial comparison

• Randomised controlled

0

• Natural experiment

0

• Eligible refuser

0

• Prospective cohort

1a

• Retrospective cohort

8b

Type of clinical trials patients participated in

• Randomised only

4c

• Other

5d

Type of malignant disease

• Haematological

1

• Solid tumour

8

Baseline differences accounted for

• Age

5e

• Sex

8f

• Stage

8g

• Performance status

5h

• Comorbidity

4i

• Socioeconomic status

4j

• Treatment centre

7k

Type of analysis

• Unadjusted only

2

• Adjusted only

0

• Both adjusted and unadjusted

7

Non-trial patients restricted to those meeting trial eligibility criteria

• Yes

2l

• No

7

  1. a Goldman et al. [32]
  2. b Arrieta et al. [28], Bertelli et al. [29], De Placido et al. [30], Field et al. [31], Khera et al. [33] Le Du et al. [34], Svensson et al. [35], Templeton et al. [36]
  3. c All trials included in the four studies [29, 30, 33, 35] were phase III trials
  4. d In the five other studies, study design or trial phase could not be identified [28, 31, 32, 34, 36]
  5. e Three studies reported no baseline difference [28, 30, 34], and two studies adjusted using multivariate or multivariable analyses [31, 33]
  6. f Two studies adjusted using multivariate analysis [28, 32], one through restriction of cohort [34], and another did not identify any baseline difference [33]. For three studies, control of the confounder was not applicable [29, 35, 36]
  7. g One study explicitly adjusted for stage in the multivariate analysis [28], one study according to high vs low risk in multivariate analysis [33]. Four other studies in which the patients had metastatic disease at treatment start adjusted for, e.g. metastatic sites, prior treatment and specific mutations [30, 34,35,36]. Not applicable for two studies [31, 32]
  8. h Accounted for in multivariate or multivariable analyses [28, 31,32,33, 36]
  9. i One study accounted for this in a multivariate analysis as described in the method section, but the result is not presented [28], and another study by restriction of cohort [34]. Two studies did not identify any baseline difference [33, 36]
  10. j Two studies adjusted by restriction of cohort [31, 34], and two studies found no baseline difference [33, 36]
  11. k For three studies, adjusting for treatment centre was not applicable [28, 32, 36]. Three adjusted by restriction of cohort [29, 31, 34]. The last study did not investigate differences between the two included hospitals. One study adjusted through multivariable analysis [33]
  12. l Khera et al. [33], Le Du et al. [34]
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BMC Cancer

ISSN: 1471-2407

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