In reply: Thomson is correct in stating that patients involved in clinical trials have better 5-year survival rates when compared with patients not recruited into clinical trials. There may, as Thomson points out, be numerous possible explanations for this finding. Nonetheless, this improvement in survival is well documented and has been recognised for some time.1
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- 3 Department of Haematology and Oncology, Royal Children’s Hospital, Flemington Road, Parkville, VIC 3052
- 5 Cancer Epidemiology Centre, The Cancer Council, Melbourne, VIC
- 6 Paediatric Radiation Oncology, Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute, Melbourne, VIC.
Correspondence: mitchell.anne@bigpond.com
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