Clinical trial design in cancer

The design of clinical trials in cancer is a subject which features reasonably often among FRCR (Part 1) examination questions, and as such should be of more than passing interest to oncologists. It is also a subject which is gaining in relevance since the number of trials is increasing annually due in part to the many chemotherapeutic regimes which are being proposed. This paper which is based on a lecture given in Cambridge at the Hospital Physicists' Association Annual Conference in September 1978, is intended to act as an introduction to clinical trial design. References for further reading are given and, in particular, the extensive report on randomised clinical trials to the Medical Research Council's Leukaemia Steering Committee (Peto et al., 1977, 1978) is recommended.