If you are trying to locate prior systematic reviews: If you don't find anything when you use the SR filter, consider removing a concept from your search strategy, i.e. make it broader. In the search example below, combinations of concepts are used to identify potential SRs as well as clinical trials studies. The rationale for doing it like is that authors don't always describe in their titles or abstracts exactly what they've done so we have to sometimes broaden the search a bit to ensure nothing is missed.
Find clinical trials and potential systematic reviews that looked the use of hormone antagonists, especially estrogen receptor modulators, for the treatment of breast cancer among elderly women.
Ovid Medline 1996 to November Week 3 2012; Ovid Medline In-Process & Other Non-Indexed Citations November 27, 2012
| # | Search History | Results | Explanation |
| 1 | exp Breast Neoplasms/ |
125571 |
MeSH term for breast cancer |
| 2 | exp Breast/ or Breast Diseases/ |
18383 |
MeSH term for the breast or breast diseases (in general) |
| 3 | Neoplasms/ or Adenocarcinoma/ or Carcinoma/ |
215567 |
MeSH terms for non-specified types of cancer |
| 4 | 2 and 3 |
781 |
finds the INTERSECTION of the terms on lines 2 and 3 |
| 5 | (brca or (breast adj4 (adenocarcinoma* or cancer* or carcinoma* or metasta* or neoplasm* or tumo?r))).ti,ab. |
136885 |
keyword or common terms used; adj4: the word breast has to be within 4 words of the words in the parentheses; searched in the title and abstract fields |
| 6 | 1 or 4 or 5 |
136577 |
creates the UNION of the terms on lines 1, 4, and 5 |
| 7 | aged/ or "aged, 80 and over"/ or frail elderly/ |
1253727 |
MeSH terms for the elderly |
| 8 | (elderly or "over 65" or "over 80" or "65 year*" or "85 year*").ti,ab. |
139535 |
common keywords, searched in the title and abstract fields |
| 9 | 7 or 8 |
1288720 |
creates the UNION of the terms on lines 7 and 9 |
| 10 | hormone antagonists/ or exp estrogen receptor modulators/ |
29996 |
MeSH terms for hormone therapies |
| 11 | (hormone antagonist* or (estrogen adj3 modulator*) or Centchroman or Clomiphene or Danazol or Ethamoxytriphetol or Fadrozole or Nafoxidine or Nitromifene or Raloxifene or Tamoxifen or Toremifene).ti,ab,rn. |
24022 |
common keywords, searched in the title and abstract fields |
| 12 | 10 or 11 |
26781 |
creates the UNION of the terms on lines 10 and 11 |
| 13 | 6 and 9 and 12 |
2715 |
finds the INTERSECTION of the concepts from lines 6, 9, and 12 |
| 14 | exp Clinical Trial/ or double-blind method/ or (clinical trial* or randomized controlled trial or multicenter study).pt. or exp Clinical Trials as Topic/ or ((randomi?ed adj7 trial*) or (controlled adj3 trial*) or (clinical adj2 trial*) or ((single or doubl* or tripl* or treb*) and (blind* or mask*))).ti,ab. |
770106 |
search filter for clinical trials |
| 15 | 13 and 14 |
1204 |
finds potential clinical trials done with the elderly who have breast cancer and who received a hormone antagonist or estrogen receptor modulator |
| 16 | (((comprehensive* or systematic*) adj3 (bibliographic* or review* or literature)) or (meta-analy* or metaanaly* or "research synthesis" or ((information or data) adj3 synthesis) or (data adj2 extract*))).ti,ab. or (cinahl or (cochrane adj3 trial*) or embase or medline or psyclit or (psycinfo not "psycinfo database") or pubmed or scopus or "sociological abstracts" or "web of science").ab. or "cochrane database of systematic reviews".jn. or ((review adj5 (rationale or evidence)).ti,ab. and review.pt.) or meta-analysis as topic/ or Meta-Analysis.pt. |
148177 |
search filter for systematic reviews |
| 17 | 15 and 16 |
72 |
searches for potential systematic reviews in the results from line 15 |
| 15 | 13 and 16 |
98 |
searches for SRs with elderly breast cancer patients who received a hormone antagonist or estrogen receptor modulator but not necessarily identified as part of a clinical trial |
| 14 | 6 and 12 and 16 |
391 |
searches for SRs with ALL breast cancer patients (regardless of age)who received a hormone antagonist or estrogen receptor modulator but not necessarily identified as part of a clinical trial |