Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26920571›Full record

ArticleClinical orthopaedics and related research2017

Has the Level of Evidence of Podium Presentations at the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society Annual Meeting Changed Over Time?

Daniel M Lerman, Matthew G Cable, Patrick Thornley, Nathan Evaniew, Gerard P Slobogean, Mohit Bhandari, John H Healey, R Lor Randall, Michelle Ghert

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Clinical orthopaedics and related research, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
5citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
1.0field-weighted citation impact, top 23% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.

Daniel M LermanDepartment of Orthopaedics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Matthew G CableSarcoma Services, Primary Children's Hospital & Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Patrick ThornleyDivision of Orthopaedic Surgery, Department of Surgery, McMaster University, HHS Hamilton General Hospital, 711 Concession Street Hamilton, Hamilton, ON, L8V 1C3, Canada.
Nathan EvaniewDivision of Orthopaedic Surgery, Department of Surgery, McMaster University, HHS Hamilton General Hospital, 711 Concession Street Hamilton, Hamilton, ON, L8V 1C3, Canada.
Gerard P SlobogeanDepartment of Orthopaedics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Mohit BhandariDivision of Orthopaedic Surgery, Department of Surgery, McMaster University, HHS Hamilton General Hospital, 711 Concession Street Hamilton, Hamilton, ON, L8V 1C3, Canada.
John H HealeyOrthopaedic Service, Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
R Lor RandallSarcoma Services, Primary Children's Hospital & Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Michelle GhertDivision of Orthopaedic Surgery, Department of Surgery, McMaster University, HHS Hamilton General Hospital, 711 Concession Street Hamilton, Hamilton, ON, L8V 1C3, Canada. ghert@hhsc.ca.
McMaster University · CAPrimary Children's Hospital · USUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore · USHamilton General Hospital · CAMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundLevel of evidence (LOE) framework is a tool with which to categorize clinical studies based on their likelihood to be influenced by bias. Improvements in LOE have been demonstrated throughout orthopaedics, prompting our evaluation of orthopaedic oncology research LOE to determine if it has changed in kind. QUESTIONS/PURPOSES: (1) Has the LOE presented at the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society (MSTS) annual meeting improved over time? (2) Over the past decade, how do the MSTS and Orthopaedic Trauma Association (OTA) annual meetings compare regarding LOE overall and for the subset of therapeutic studies?

methodsWe reviewed abstracts from MSTS and OTA annual meeting podium presentations from 2005 to 2014. Three independent reviewers evaluated a total of 1222 abstracts for study type and LOE; there were 577 abstracts from MSTS and 645 from OTA. Changes in the distributions of study type and LOE over time were evaluated by Pearson chi-square test.

resultsThere was no change over time in MSTS LOE for all study types (p = 0.13) and therapeutic (p = 0.36) study types during the reviewed decade. In contrast, OTA LOE increased over this time for all study types (p < 0.01). The proportion of Level I therapeutic studies was higher at the OTA than the MSTS (3% [14 of 413] versus 0.5% [two of 387], respectively), whereas the proportion of Level IV studies was lower at the OTA than the MSTS (32% [134 of 413] versus 75% [292 of 387], respectively) during the reviewed decade. The proportion of controlled therapeutic studies (LOE I through III) versus uncontrolled studies (LOE IV) increased over time at OTA (p < 0.021), but not at MSTS (p = 0.10).

conclusionsUncontrolled case series continue to dominate the MSTS scientific program, limiting progress in evidence-based clinical care. Techniques used by the OTA to improve LOE may be emulated by the MSTS. These techniques focus on broad participation in multicenter collaborations that are designed in a comprehensive manner and answer a pragmatic clinical question.

Indexed as

Bone NeoplasmsMuscle NeoplasmsSpeechBiomedical ResearchChi-Square DistributionCongresses as TopicEvidence-Based MedicineHumansMedical OncologyOrthopedicsTime Factors

Identifiers

PMID26920571
PMCPMC5289162
OpenAlexW2275574338

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.