On 2016 Jan 12, Tamás Ferenci commented:

I have replied to this paper criticizing certain aspects of it (Ferenci T, 2017), available for download here, to which the original authors also responded (Diamond DM, 2017), available for download here.

On 2015 Nov 01, John Tucker commented:

The authors correctly point out that the use of relative risk information in isolation can be misleading, but this is true of their preferred measure of absolute risk reduction as well. The examples chosen by the authors to illustrate their point are 2 to 5 year trials of drugs that are taken prophylactically for much longer periods. Further, two were stopped early for ethical reasons after crossing the threshold for showing clear clinical benefit, which placed an upper limit on the level of benefit that could be demonstrated. The survival curves from longer term trials such as 4S and WOSCOPS show a progressively larger absolute benefit with longer duration of treatment.

Presented in isolation, both relative and absolute risk reduction can be misleading.

On 2015 Nov 01, John Tucker commented:

The authors correctly point out that the use of relative risk information in isolation can be misleading, but this is true of their preferred measure of absolute risk reduction as well. The examples chosen by the authors to illustrate their point are 2 to 5 year trials of drugs that are taken prophylactically for much longer periods. Further, two were stopped early for ethical reasons after crossing the threshold for showing clear clinical benefit, which placed an upper limit on the level of benefit that could be demonstrated. The survival curves from longer term trials such as 4S and WOSCOPS show a progressively larger absolute benefit with longer duration of treatment.

Presented in isolation, both relative and absolute risk reduction can be misleading.

On 2016 Jan 12, Tamás Ferenci commented:

I have replied to this paper criticizing certain aspects of it (Ferenci T, 2017), available for download here, to which the original authors also responded (Diamond DM, 2017), available for download here.