Kokoschka 1978.
Study characteristics | ||
Methods | Phase II parallel‐group RCT. Open label study. |
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Participants | Untreated metastatic melanoma. Randomised participants: 34. |
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Interventions | Two‐arm trial:
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Outcomes | Overall survival. Tumour response. Toxicity. |
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Notes | Cross‐over: not allowed. Quality of life: not reported. Participants with brain metastasis: excluded. Median follow‐up: not reported. |
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Risk of bias | ||
Bias | Authors' judgement | Support for judgement |
Random sequence generation (selection bias) | Unclear risk | Quote: "Patients were randomised". Comment: There was insufficient information about the sequence generation process to permit judgment. |
Allocation concealment (selection bias) | Unclear risk | There was insufficient information to permit judgment. |
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes | Low risk | As an open label study, no blinding of participants or personnel was possible. However, we believe that in this setting (metastatic melanoma), with the treatments tested and outcomes assessed, the knowledge of which intervention was received or administered (rather than the intervention itself), could not affect the outcomes under investigation. Therefore, we judged the risk of performance bias as low. |
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | There was insufficient information to permit judgment. |
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes | Unclear risk | There was insufficient information to permit judgment. |
Selective reporting (reporting bias) | Unclear risk | Published reports included all expected outcomes. However, no protocol was available so it was unclear if all planned outcomes were reported. |
Other bias | Low risk | The study appeared to be free of other sources of bias. |