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Surgery

Limitations of prospective surgical oncology trials — a US view

Surgeons should promote the best standard of surgical care through evidence-based results from prospective trials. European surgical investigators, in this issue of the journal, highlight the difficulties in patient accrual to surgical trials, patient and physician biases, and referral and quality assurance hurdles. We expand on these points and suggest some solutions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr V. Suzanne Klimberg, MD, Professor of Surgery and Pathology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, AR, USA, for her helpful suggestions for the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Charles M. Balch.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Balch, C., Nelson, H. & Niederhuber, J. Limitations of prospective surgical oncology trials — a US view. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 13, 6–8 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2015.212

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