Randomized controlled trials of treatments for hematologic malignancies

Abstract

To investigate the effects of photoisomerizable azobenzene segments on the liquid‐crystalline characteristics and thermal properties of polymers, a series of liquid‐crystalline homopolymers and copolymers with azobenzene segments was synthesized. The azobenzene contents of the copolymers were estimated with elemental analysis. The photoisomerization of the azobenzene derivatives was studied with ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy. The UV–vis absorption of the copolymers was found to be parallel with the content of the azobenzene segments. UV irradiation was found to cause a decrease in the copolymer transmittance around 355 nm due to the photoinduced isomerization from entgegen (E) to zusammen (Z). The phase‐transition temperatures and molecular weights of the polymers were investigated with differential scanning calorimetry and gel permeation chromatography, respectively. The variation in the phase‐transition temperature of the homopolymers before and after UV (365 nm) irradiation was investigated. The bended Z structure was found to disturb the order of the orientation of liquid crystals and to lower the phase‐transition temperature. The appearance of the polymer film was changed from opaque to clear after sufficient UV irradiation. The image recording of the polymer films was achieved after UV irradiation through a mask with pictures. The stability and reliability of the Nematic‐Isotropic phase transition of the homopolymers was evaluated with repeated cycles of 365‐nm UV irradiation and heating at 130°C. After the recycle phase transition was repeated nine times, no significant decay in the response and transmittance could be found. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 2006

Factors Associated with Publication of Randomized Phase iii Cancer Trials in Journals with a High Impact Factor

“…More than 60% of the trials published in high-if journals had positive outcomes; only 25% trials published in low-if journals had positive outcomes. Those results are consistent with results in earlier reviews of trials in hematology and neonatology 7,16 . Taken together, those findings suggest an "impact factor bias" in publication, an observation that is concerning, given that trials published in journals with high ifs are, by definition, more widely read and cited.…”

“…However, their review did not include data about the primary endpoint, and the median sample size was only 45-meaning that most of those rcts would not be powered for survival. The percentage of positive trials was 71% in their series, much higher than the 34% observed in our study or the 33% observed in a review by Yanada et al 16 . Gluud et al 18 did not observe any association between if and study outcome, but it is likely that differences with respect to primary endpoints in hepatobiliary trials account for the observed high prevalence of positive trials and the lack of an association between study outcome and if.…”

New treatments compared to established treatments in randomized trials

“…Three papers reported results of smaller cohorts (Joffe 2004; Kumar 2005; Soares 2004) which were all included within a final, large analysis published by Djulbegovic and colleagues (Djulbegovic 2008) and hence were included in this review via this larger cohort. Two other papers were based on published trials only (Lathyris 2010; Yanada 2007) and therefore were excluded from our analysis. Two other cohorts which explored the effect of funding source on study outcome but only included data from published studies were also excluded (Bekelman 2003; Lexchin 2003).…”

“…Likewise, all other studies, in which the impact of publication bias could not be excluded, were deemed ineligible for this review. Typically, these were studies that relied only on published studies (Lathyris 2010; Yanada 2007) and hence there was no way to ensure that the cohorts of studies are not affected by publication bias (unless the authors clearly took into consideration the results of unpublished studies in their report, in which case these studies would have been eligible for our review).…”

Prognostic significance of osteopontin in acute myeloid leukemia: A meta‑analysis

“…Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a unique type of malignancy, the main treatment for which is chemotherapy alone or chemotherapy combined with radiotherapy, as surgical intervention is not indicated, with certain exceptions (1). Although significant progress has been made in the diagnosis and treatment of AML, the prognosis of leukemia patients is dismal due to recurrence and poor response to adjunctive treatments in advanced stages.…”