what they said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

In advanced pancreatic cancer patients, a novel anti-neovascular therapy added to standard gemcitabine therapy substantially extended survival time compared with gemcitabine alone in a study presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology Congress.

The novel agent is cationic lipid complexed paclitaxel noparticles (EndoTAG-1), which targets activated negatively charged endothelial cells of tumour blood vessels...

The original article can be found at: http://www.medicalpost.com/therapeutics/oncology/article.jsp?content=20081014_114126_20304

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what we said (Hover the mouse cursor over underlined words for more info)

Regardless of some troubling aspects, this report successfully emphasized the preliminary nature of the treatment of pancreatic cancer with EndoTAG-1. Due to the fact that this treatment option is in its early stages the cost and availability information are assumed to be unavailable and thus, the story received a rating of "not applicable."

That being said, very little information was provided regarding the sources of information and potential conflicts of interest. The report contents were said to have been presented at a major conference and the report includes interviews with individuals from different academic research organizations. Even with this information, readers are not informed about whether the research was funded by the government or industry, or by an academic body.

The reports does state that "the treatment [with EndoTAG-1] was well-tolerated, with the main side-effects being fever and chills." However, there is no indication as to how often these adverse reactions were seen in the target population.

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