There is not enough randomized clinical trial data to provide doctors with sufficient evidence for radiation oncology treatment decisions, according to a study published online May 14 in the journal Cancer.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina evaluated how often patients were seen in their clinic needing medical decisions that were not specifically addressed by randomized, controlled trials.
Senior author Dr. Joel Tepper and colleagues found that in a group of 393 patients with multiple tumor types, 47% of all medical decisions were made without available or applicable randomized evidence to inform clinical decision-making.
"Randomized, controlled trials are the lynchpin of clinical care, but the results are often not applicable to an individual patient, so all care cannot be provided entirely on the basis of those trials," Tepper said in a statement released by the university. "We're not speaking against clinical trials. We're just pointing out their limitations in daily cancer care."
