Chin J Clin Oncol (2008) 5: 1~9DOI 10.1007/s11805-008-0001-y
Application of Meta-Analysis in Evidence-Based OncologyXiaoping Lin
Qingsheng WangABSTRACT The Cochrane Collaboration is an international not-for-profit Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute &
Hospital, Tianjin 300060, China.and independent organization, dedicated to providing up-to-date evidence-based information about the effects of healthcare in the form of systematic reviews. Meta-analysis is a statistical tool to prepare the systematic reviews. This paper briefly introduces the above terms and how to apply evidence-based oncology. Recent findings by using meta-analysis for cancers of the breast, lung, colon, liver, stomach and cervix uteri were reviewed in three cancer fields, viz., etiologic research, screening and therapy. KEYWORDS: evidence-based medicine, cancer, systematic
reviews; meta-analysis.
Correspondence to: Qingsheng Wang
E-mail: anti@Evidence-based medicine is a useful research method and brand new theory in medical science, which has developed since the 1970’s. At the present time, cancer is one of most harmful diseases impacting our health and life, so evidence-based oncology should be widely practiced by medical professionals who work on can-cer prevention or in clinical settings. Research on evidence-based medicine will produce specific systematic reviews and guidelines to provide the best medical practice. In research involving evi-dence-based medicine, meta-analysis is frequently used as a basic statistical tool.
Evidence-Based Medicine
Definition of evidence-based medicineEvidence-based medicine has been defined as “the conscientious, explicit, and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. The practice of evidence-based medicine means integrating individual clinical expertise with the best available external clinical evidence from systematic research[1].” More recently it has been described as the “integration of best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values[2].” The 3 key phrases in this definition are, “best research evidence”, “clinical expertise” and “patient values”.
Evidence-based medicine and Cochrane Collabora-
tion[3,4]
Received December 17, 2007; accepted
January 20, 2008.
CJCO
E-mail:cocr@
Tel (Fax):86-22-2352 2919The Cochrane Collaboration is an international not-for-profit and independent organization, dedicated to making up-to-date, accu-rate information about the effects of healthcare readily available worldwide. It produces and disseminates systematic reviews of healthcare interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions. The Cochrane Collaboration was founded in 1993. The major prod-uct of the Cochrane Collaboration is the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews which is published quarterly as part of the Cochrane Library. The Cochrane Library consists of a regularly