Trials in palliative care

Abstract

EDITOR,—In their discussion of the problems and pitfalls of evaluating a palliative care service McWhinney and colleagues mentioned three published trials in palliative care services.1 Apparently only trials with additional care services were selected, and trials on palliative treatment were excluded. In the field of additional care services we found one other trial.2 Many trials in palliative cancer care report problems with patient selection, accrual, attrition, contamination of exposure, and selection of adequate outcome measures. We also conducted a randomised trial on palliative care services, for patients with disseminated colorectal cancer. Our trial compared fluorouracil as single agent by continuous infusion at home versus combination therapy with leucovorin at an outpatient clinic. Main outcome measures were …