Do patients survive longer because they are enrolled in trials? A new JAMA study says NO.

Jonathan Kimmelman and colleagues found no survival benefit after considering biases and counfounders.

EDITORS’ PICK - In this section, we present a paper that cought our attention, any publication that we feel is important!

In this article published in JAMA, the authors tackle the common belief that being enrolled in a trial, in and of itself, leads to better outcomes. Do intense follow-up or access to novel drugs prolong patients’ lives?

To our knowledge, no study has ever randomized people to participate in a trial or not. Confounding by indication, i.e. cherry-picking trial patients, is so problematic that no comparison can be made to non-trial patients. We doubt trials extend life on their own, but rather select patients in better condition.

In their study, Kimmelman and colleagues elegantly demonstrated this. They accounted for the potential of publication bias. In “studies using designs addressing important sources of bias and confounding”, no survival benefit from trial enrollment was found.

Check out their work below and the full article here.