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Hooijmans CR, de Vries RBM, Ritskes-Hoitinga M, Rovers MM, Leeflang MM, IntHout J, Wever KE, Hooft L, de Beer H, Kuijpers T, Macleod MR, Sena ES, ter Riet G, Morgan RL, Thayer KA, Rooney AA, Guyatt GH, Schünemann HJ, Langendam MW. Facilitating healthcare decisions by assessing the certainty in the evidence from preclinical animal studies. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0187271. [PMID: 29324741 PMCID: PMC5764235 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187271] [Citation(s) in RCA: 70] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2017] [Accepted: 10/17/2017] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Laboratory animal studies are used in a wide range of human health related research areas, such as basic biomedical research, drug research, experimental surgery and environmental health. The results of these studies can be used to inform decisions regarding clinical research in humans, for example the decision to proceed to clinical trials. If the research question relates to potential harms with no expectation of benefit (e.g., toxicology), studies in experimental animals may provide the only relevant or controlled data and directly inform clinical management decisions. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses are important tools to provide robust and informative evidence summaries of these animal studies. Rating how certain we are about the evidence could provide important information about the translational probability of findings in experimental animal studies to clinical practice and probably improve it. Evidence summaries and certainty in the evidence ratings could also be used (1) to support selection of interventions with best therapeutic potential to be tested in clinical trials, (2) to justify a regulatory decision limiting human exposure (to drug or toxin), or to (3) support decisions on the utility of further animal experiments. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach is the most widely used framework to rate the certainty in the evidence and strength of health care recommendations. Here we present how the GRADE approach could be used to rate the certainty in the evidence of preclinical animal studies in the context of therapeutic interventions. We also discuss the methodological challenges that we identified, and for which further work is needed. Examples are defining the importance of consistency within and across animal species and using GRADE's indirectness domain as a tool to predict translation from animal models to humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carlijn R. Hooijmans
- Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation (SYRCLE), Department of Health Evidence, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Rob B. M. de Vries
- Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation (SYRCLE), Department of Health Evidence, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga
- Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation (SYRCLE), Department of Health Evidence, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Maroeska M. Rovers
- Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation (SYRCLE), Department of Health Evidence, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Mariska M. Leeflang
- Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Joanna IntHout
- Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation (SYRCLE), Department of Health Evidence, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Kimberley E. Wever
- Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation (SYRCLE), Department of Health Evidence, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Lotty Hooft
- Cochrane Netherlands, University Medical Center, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | | | - Ton Kuijpers
- Dutch College of General Practitioners, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Malcolm R. Macleod
- Center for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Emily S. Sena
- Center for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
| | - Gerben ter Riet
- Department of General Practice, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Rebecca L. Morgan
- Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
- Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
| | - Kristina A. Thayer
- Division of the National Toxicology Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C., United States of America
| | - Andrew A. Rooney
- Division of the National Toxicology Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C., United States of America
| | - Gordon H. Guyatt
- Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
- Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
| | - Holger J. Schünemann
- Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
- Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
| | - Miranda W. Langendam
- Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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