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Ethical Considerations of Comparing Sequential and Traditional Anti–Helicobacter pylori Therapy
- Dino Vaira, MD;
- Angelo Zullo, MD; and
- Nimish Vakil, MD
- From University of Bologna, 40138 Bologna, Italy; Nuovo Regina Margherita Hospital, 00153 Rome, Italy; and University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI 53705.
IN RESPONSE:
There are several misstatements in Drs. Graham and Yamaoka's letter. There was no sponsor for our study, and triple therapy is a legacy therapy solely in a fantasy world. Triple therapy was recently reaffirmed by an international consensus group as the principal therapy to be used worldwide and by U.S. and Japanese guidelines (1–3). It is, therefore, an appropriate control group for any new therapy. Our study began in 2003, when it was uncertain whether sequential therapy was truly effective in large cohorts. A fundamental question remained unanswered until now: Was sequential therapy the answer …
