A checklist for evaluating reports of expression profiling for treatment selection.

Oncologists need improved tools for selecting the right treatment for a given patient because many patients do not benefit from administered therapies. The use of expression profiling of tumors has increased dramatically and many claims are made for the value of expression signatures in treatment selection. It is difficult, however, for oncologists to critically evaluate published results in this technology- and statistics-intensive field. A checklist is presented to help oncologists evaluate publications on expression profiling of human tumors to determine whether the results are ready for use with their patients.