ReviewSupportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer2012
Interpreting results from oncology clinical trials: a comparison of denosumab to zoledronic acid for the prevention of skeletal-related events in cancer patients.
Review in Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Pain and health-related quality of life in patients with advanced solid tumours and bone metastases: integrated results from three randomized, double-blind studies of denosumab and zoledronic acid.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2013Trial
- Number needed to treat and associated cost analysis of zanubrutinib vs ibrutinib in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.Journal of managed care & specialty pharmacy · 2025Article
- Number-needed-to-treat analysis of clinical progression in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer in the STRIVE and TERRAIN trials.BMC urology · 2018Article
- Does CBCT alter the diagnostic thinking efficacy, management and prognosis of patients with suspected Stage 0 medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaws?Dento maxillo facial radiology · 2018Article
- Pathophysiology of Osteonecrosis of the Jaws.Oral and maxillofacial surgery clinics of North America · 2015Review
- Article
- Stage 0 osteonecrosis of the jaw in a patient on denosumab.Journal of oral and maxillofacial surgery : official journal of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons · 2014Article
- RANKL inhibitors induce osteonecrosis of the jaw in mice with periapical disease.Journal of bone and mineral research : the official journal of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research · 2014Article
- Future of bisphosphonates and denosumab for men with advanced prostate cancer.Cancer management and research · 2014Review
- Comparing cost-effectiveness analyses of denosumab versus zoledronic acid for the treatment of bone metastases.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2013Review
- Importance of antiresorptive therapies for patients with bone metastases from solid tumors.Cancer management and research · 2012Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCritically reviewing the design, endpoints, and results of clinical trials can be challenging to health care professionals. This paper will review the basic methods of presenting clinical outcomes in randomized trials and will focus on the number needed to treat (NNT) concept. NNT will then be applied to the case of bone-targeted therapies denosumab and zoledronic acid, which are used for the prevention of skeletal-related events (SREs) in a variety of disease sites.
methodsA Medline search was performed to identify randomized trials comparing denosumab to zoledronic acid for the prevention of SREs in patients with advanced breast, prostate, and other cancer sites. The data were extracted, and point estimates for the primary and secondary trial endpoints were converted into the NNT parameter.
resultsNNT represents the number of patients that need to be treated with a new intervention in order to avoid one additional patient developing the event and is a powerful approach that can be used to make sense of numerical results from clinical trials. In patients with advanced breast, prostate, and other cancer sites, 18, 22, and 21 patients, respectively, would need to be treated with denosumab for at least 24 months to avoid one patient developing an SRE.
conclusionsThe NNT approach is a simple and effective method to express the findings of randomized trials in a clinically meaningful way. In this analysis, the incremental benefits of denosumab would be realized when a minimum of 18 to 22 patients are treated for a prolonged duration. Clinicians would have to weigh the costs and benefits between denosumab and zoledronic acid when bone-targeted therapy is indicated.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.