Eligible participants are randomised to, homeopathic treatment plus usual care or supportive listening plus usual care or usual care alone by the shuffling of sealed opaque envelopes containing the allocation.
The study was designed as a prospective, randomised, controlled, double-blind, multi-centre phase III trial comparing best supportive care plus thymostimulin with best supportive care plus placebo (trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN64487365).
From this cohort patients are randomly selected to be offered, 5 sessions of homeopathic treatment plus usual care, 5 sessions of supportive listening plus usual care or usual care alone.
Treatment costs included surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy and supportive medication, plus inpatient fees.
The study was discontinued because of the superiority of supportive care plus RT: the mOS after 21 weeks of follow-up was 29.1 weeks in the RT plus supportive care group and 16.9 weeks in those receiving supportive care alone.
The median survival for best supportive care plus vinorelbine was 28 weeks compared with 21 weeks for best supportive care alone.
This meta-analysis compared the effectiveness of supportive care plus chemotherapy versus supportive care alone for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer.
We believe that a randomised trial analysing supportive treatment plus limited plasmapheresis (3-5 sessions using albumin) compared with no additional treatment is necessary for clarification.
Glimelius et al randomised patients with advanced biliary and pancreatic cancer to best supportive care plus or minus 5FU, etoposide and leucovorin (FELV).
Patients were randomised (1 1) to receive best supportive care plus oral placebo or erlotinib (150 mg/day) until disease progression, toxicity or death.
13 The SATURN study compared first-line maintenance therapy with either erlotinib or best supportive care plus placebo (n = 889) following four cycles of platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC.
