Summary: Questions to Ask About a Cancer Study
In summary, the following questions may help as you look through various cancer studies, looking for the most medically definitive findings:
Question | Look For |
- Was the study a clinical trial? In other words, was the study experimental (there was an intervention that people were asked to take or do) and prospective (investigators followed study participants forward in time)?
| A study that is both
experimental and prospective |
- What phase was the trial -- phase I, phase II or phase III?
| A phase III study |
- Did the clinical trial have a control group? That is, did one group of participants receive the experimental intervention while another did not?
| A controlled study |
- Were participants randomly assigned to either the investigational group or the control group?
| A randomized study |
- How many participants were enrolled in the study?
| A study that is large enough for the results to be statistically significant;
not due to chance |
