RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Users’ guide to the surgical literature: how to assess an article using surrogate end points
JF Canadian Journal of Surgery
JO CAN J SURG
FD Canadian Medical Association
SP 280
OP 287
DO 10.1503/cjs.002217
VO 60
IS 4
A1 Lucas Gallo
A1 Cagla Eskicioglu
A1 Luis H. Braga
A1 Forough Farrokhyar
A1 Achilleas Thoma
YR 2017
UL http://canjsurg.ca/content/60/4/280.abstract
AB Phase 3 randomized controlled trials are the widely accepted gold standard through which treatment decisions are made, as they assess the efficacy of a novel treatment against the control on the relevant patient population. The effectiveness of the novel treatment should be derived by measuring patient-important outcomes; however, to accurately assess these outcomes, clinical trials often require extensive patient follow-up and large sample sizes that can incur substantial expense. For this reason, investigators substitute surrogate end points to reduce the sample size and duration of a trial, ultimately reducing cost. The purpose of this article is to help surgeons appraise the surgical literature that use surrogate end points for patient-important outcomes.