Comparison of absolute benefits of anticancer therapies determined by snapshot and area methods.

BACKGROUND: Reporting of relative risk reduction as the measure of treatment effect in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) may be difficult to understand. Here, we compare two methods for assessing absolute benefits of anticancer therapies. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We searched PubMed for RCTs comparing therapies for breast and colorectal cancers published 1975-2009 (adjuvant setting) and 2000-2010 (metastatic setting). Eligible trials reported …