Publication biases and phase II trials investigating anticancer targeted therapies.

The aim of this study was to determine which parameter may affect impact factor (IF) of journals publishing reports of phase II trial (P2T) investigating molecular targeted therapies (MTT). We reviewed 74 reports of P2Ts investigating MTT (imatinib, n = 55; sorafenib, n = 11; sunitinib, n = 5; dasatinib, n = 3) issued between 1/2002 and 6/2008. As a result, we found that the final result of the trial itself was the most important parameter that was related to IF, as the median-IF was significantly lower for negative trials than for positive trials (2.71 vs 6.14, p = 0.004).