COMMENTARY
See article on page 17
H2 antagonists for gastric cancer: small numbers are not beautiful
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
The study reported on page 17 illustrates some of the frustrations of clinical trials. The rationale for undertaking a prospective trial of the use of ranitidine in gastric cancer was appropriate. A previous study from Tonnesen et al1 had demonstrated a survival benefit using cimetidine in patients with gastric cancer. This group of authors argued that cimetidine had an immunological effect which included inhibition of T suppresser activity and increased interleukin 2 production by lymphocytes.2 3
Ranitidine has a similar effect: the Yorkshire GI tumour group began
this study in 1989 to evaluate the potential effect of this drug in a
controlled trial treating all stages of gastric cancer. Between 1989 and 1995, 222 patients were recruited. This illustrates one of the
frustrations of running trials in gastric cancer. This is a recruitment
rate of less than 50 patients per year and is a feature many gastric
cancer trials have in common.4 5 The patients were
randomised to receive
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- A prospective randomised controlled study of the use of ranitidine in patients with gastric cancer
- J N Primrose, G V Miller, S R Preston, J Gokhale, N S Ambrose, U M Ward, J G Mills, R S B Ehsanullah, B Darekar, and and the Yorkshire GI Tumour Group
Gut 1998 42: 17-19.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Marignani, M, Angeletti, S, Morini, S
(2003). Osteoporosis and liver disease: additional reasons for coeliac disease screening. Gut
52: 452-452
[Full Text] -
Sorensen, H T, Thulstrup, A M, Blomqvist, P, Norgaard, B, Fonager, K, Ekbom, A
(1999). Risk of primary biliary liver cirrhosis in patients with coeliac disease: Danish and Swedish cohort data. Gut
44: 736-738
[Abstract] [Full Text]
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
