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LETTERS: David A Fitzgerald Headline about basal cell carcinoma was misleading BMJ 2004; 329: 1239-c-1240-c [Full text]

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Misleading headline

Fiona Bath-Hextall   (23 November 2004)

Misleading headline 23 November 2004
Fiona Bath-Hextall, senior lecturer University of Nottingham Send response to journal: Re: Misleading headline	Misleading headline The authors wish to thank Dr David Fitzgerald for highlighting the misleading headline given to the paper ‘ Interventions for basal cell carcinoma of the skin: systematic review’ published in the BMJ on the 25th September 2004. We agree that the headline was an oversimplification of the treatment of BCC and wish to point out that it was not written by ourselves but by the BMJ editorial team. For the record, our original headlines for “this week in the BMJ” are shown below: Little good quality research on the treatments used for the most common human cancer Surgery and radiotherapy appear to be the most effective treatments for basal cell carcinomas, with surgery showing the lowest failure rates. Bath-Hextall and colleagues conducted a systematic review of interventions for basal cell carcinoma of the skin and say that only 4 trials were classified as high quality. Most trials only evaluated people with basal cell carcinomas occurring in low risk sites and only one trial measured recurrence at 4 years. Recurrence rates at one year should be interpreted with caution. Other treatments might have some use but few have been compared to surgery. Fiona Bath-Hextall, Senior lecturer Centre for Evidence-based Dermatology, Queens Medical Centre, Nottingham Nodular basal cell carcinoma Competing interests: None declared