Concordance between abstracts, virtual meeting (VM) presentations, and final publication of phase III clinical trials presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Abstract

6622 Background: Phase III clinical trial results described in abstracts in the ASCO Annual Meeting Proceedings often differ from final results seen in publication. We hypothesize that the abstracts may act only as place holders, while the results presented at the ASCO Annual Meeting are more highly concordant with the final publication. Methods: A retrospective review of all abstracts submitted to the ASCO Annual Meeting in 2005 to 2007 was conducted. Inclusion Criteria: randomized, prospective phase III clinical trials of greater than 200 patients with at least one quantitative primary endpoint such as OS or PFS. For each abstract, we viewed the VM presentation and searched Pubmed and Medline for the corresponding publications. Data regarding the clinical trials was extracted from all three sources and statistical comparisons were made. Results: A total of 7,900 abstracts were screened from the ASCO 2005 and 2007 Annual Meetings, of which 124 met the inclusion criteria. An additional 43 studies were excluded due to absence of either a VM presentation or publication. The majority (96%) of these trials were presented as either an oral presentation or poster discussion. Key comparisons of the concordance between the abstract or VM presentation and the final publication are shown in the Table below. Conclusions: While the statistical significance of the primary endpoint and conclusions from all three sources are very similar, the results reported in VM presentations at ASCO Annual Meetings are a better representation of the final publication compared to the abstract. When relying on clinical trial results from these meetings to change clinical practice, physicians should refer to the VM presentation rather than the abstract. [Table: see text]