RakSutkaBreast cancer: the biology, the detection, and how the treatment changed.
A wall of numbered ring binders on office shelving with printed labels
Largely an administrative achievementA multi-centre trial is allocation, follow-up and records kept intact for decades.

Section 05

The trials

Randomised comparison arrived late in surgery and then changed it quickly. These entries cover the trials that did it and the method itself, which is the reason a table of numbers could settle what argument could not.

5 entries · Randomisation as evidence.

Entries in this section

  • A wall of numbered ring binders on office shelving with printed labels
    05.1 NSABP B-04

    The trial that tested whether the radical operation actually helped, by comparing it with less.

  • A printed data table with columns of figures and a pencil lying across it
    05.2 NSABP B-06

    The trial that established breast-conserving surgery with radiotherapy as an equivalent option.

  • A hospital records room of bound patient files on metal shelving
    05.3 Milan I

    The Italian trial that reached the same conclusion by a different route, which is why the conclusion stuck.

  • A sealed envelope on a desk beside a logbook and a pen, close, office light
    05.4 Randomisation as evidence

    Allocating treatment by chance is what makes two groups comparable, and it is the reason a trial can overturn a century of conviction.

  • A large printed forest plot of horizontal lines and markers pinned to an office wall
    05.5 The Oxford overviews

    Pooling every trial's individual data periodically produced answers no single trial was big enough to give.

Every entry on this site is one thing that was established, and who established it. The complete set is in the register.