| Methods |
Method: Retrospective review of the medical records of patients presenting with sarcoma who fulfilled the criteria for participation in an RCT. Patients with sarcoma were identified from a registry.
Setting: Sarcoma services in Boston, Massachusetts in 1987.
RCT: Adjuvant chemotherapy for sarcoma. |
| Data |
Recruitment data: Clinician's decision to invite or not invite individual patients to participate in the trial.
(Dis)incentive data: Demographic and prognostic factors. |
| Comparisons |
Comparison of patients invited to participate with those not invited to particiapte according to age (dichotomised as under 50 versus 50 and over). |
| Outcomes |
The decision of the clinician to invite or not invite individual patients to participate in the trial. |
| Notes |
Six clinicians (2 medical oncologists, 2 surgeons and 2 radiotherapists) were included in the study on recruitment.
90 patients met the entry criteria for entry into the trial of whom 66/90 (73%) were invited by their clinician to participate and 42/90 (47%) were recruited.
The study also reported data on the numbers of invited patients who agreed to participate, the choice of treatment for non randomised patients and compared the disease‐free survival time of trial participants with that of non‐paricipants. This data is not covered in the review. |
