Missing the trees for the forest: most subgroup analyses using forest plots at the ASCO annual meeting are inconclusive.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Oncologists often refer to forest plots to determine which patient subgroups may be more likely to benefit from a therapy tested in a randomized clinical trial (RCT). We sought to empirically determine the information content of subgroup comparisons from forest plots of RCTs.

Methods

We assessed all forest plots from RCTs of therapeutic interventions presented orally at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meetings in 2020 and 2021. Subgroups were considered as showing evidence of treatment effect heterogeneity in forest plots when their confidence intervals (CIs) did not overlap with the vertical line corresponding to the main effect observed in the overall RCT cohort. Subgroups were considered as showing evidence of treatment effect homogeneity in fo

SUBMITTER: Hahn AW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9168942 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature