Docetaxel with prednisone or prednisolone for the treatment of ...

Quantity of research available
A total of 1065 titles and abstracts were screened
for inclusion in the review of clinical and costeffectiveness.
Of the titles and abstracts screened,
267 records were ordered as full papers. Seventeen
records were not received/unavailable at the time
of the assessment: five were not received in
time/unavailable, three were not published because
the trial was stopped prematurely (one record) or
the study had negative results (two records relating
to one trial), for two records the trialist did not
recognise the trial, three records were available
only in abstract form and four records related to
Excluded
N = 220
Background
N = 65
Overview
N = 52
Wrong patient group
N = 15
Wrong intervention
N = 12
Not an RCT
N = 74
Duplicate
N = 2
Cost-effectiveness
studies
N = 1
Chapter 4
Results
SEARCH: Clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness
Titles and abstracts
identified and screened
N = 1065
Full copies ordered
N = 267
Publications meeting
inclusion criteria
N = 30
Studies meeting
inclusion criteria
N = 7
(22 related publications)
FIGURE 1 Process of study selection for clinical and cost-effectiveness
© Queen’s Printer and Controller of HMSO 2007. All rights reserved.
Health Technology Assessment 2007; Vol. 11: No. 2
ongoing trials. A total of 250 full papers were
assessed in detail. The process of study selection is
shown in Figure 1.
For the assessment of the clinical effectiveness of
docetaxel in combination with
prednisone/prednisolone or mitoxantrone in
combination with a corticosteroid for the
treatment of mHRPC, seven RCTs were identified.
One of these RCTs used two schedules of
docetaxel in combination with prednisone; one at
the recommended dosage within its license
(75 mg/m 2 every 3 weeks):
Unavailable/not received
N = 5
No such trial/no data/
trial stopped
N = 5
Abstract only
N = 3
Ongoing trial
N = 4
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