Combined chemo-endocrine adjuvant therapy for patients with operable breast cancer: still a question?

CRD COMMENTARY: Although the research question was stated and the literature search probably discovered the relevant trials, there were several omissions in the review. The criteria for inclusion were not clearly reported and the quality of the included trials was not assessed. Further, the authors did not report on who performed the study selection or data extraction. The trials were combined in a narrative review, which reported the studies in detail and summarised the content and outcome of each study. However, there were no tests for, or discussion of, heterogeneity or other differences between the included studies. In several places there were mis-spellings, which were confusing (e.g. MAP instead of MPA, and the reader being directed to table 2 rather than table 3 for the results on chemo-endocrine therapy versus chemotherapy alone). It was also not possible to verify the study participant numbers from the way in which the details of these studies were tabulated. The conclusions of the study should be viewed with caution because of the omissions in the review methodology.