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My relative is 43 and has a very rare and aggressive stomach cancer that spread to her abdomen and bones (after 6 months of chemo). She tried a different therapy that didn’t work and caused fluid in her stomach. Now she is testing for trials she is going to start. She doesn’t elaborate too much but is a trial just to prolong her life? Can it cure her? I assume once it is in your bones it’s only a matter of time. She seems ok though. Going on trips etc....and while she is very thin, her face still looks good. I just hope she has years left but I don’t know.
My relative is 43 and has a very rare and aggressive stomach cancer that spread to her abdomen and bones (after 6 months of chemo). She tried a different therapy that didn’t work and caused fluid in her stomach. Now she is testing for trials she is going to start. She doesn’t elaborate too much but is a trial just to prolong her life? Can it cure her? I assume once it is in your bones it’s only a matter of time. She seems ok though. Going on trips etc....and while she is very thin, her face still looks good. I just hope she has years left but I don’t know.
Trials are just that...a trial experiment using new drugs or other methods...there is NO PROMISE of healing or cure. There cannot be, as the method has not been reviewed by FDA and found to be an acceptable treatment.
It offers a bit of hope.... in case the method is found to contribute positive effects.
Don't most trials have a placebo group too? So no guarantee she will even get treatment.
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Don't most trials have a placebo group too? So no guarantee she will even get treatment.
She'll get treatment. If she's not randomized into the experimental arm, she'll receive whatever therapy is currently considered standard of care for her disease stage and tumor type. There are no trials which offer placebos only, as that would be unethical and no IRB would ever approve it.
OP, your relative has nothing to lose by participating in a trial. But understand that the chances of her being helped by it are very, very small.
She'll get treatment. If she's not randomized into the experimental arm, she'll receive whatever therapy is currently considered standard of care for her disease stage and tumor type. There are no trials which offer placebos only, as that would be unethical and no IRB would ever approve it.
OP, your relative has nothing to lose by participating in a trial. But understand that the chances of her being helped by it are very, very small.
Yes - and there is hope that what she is doing may at least contribute to the future benefit of others which may be a comfort to her, despite her own outcome
I'm pretty sure some clinical trials have placebo groups, but it depends on the protocol that is being used.
Comparison groups
Most clinical trials use comparison groups to compare medical strategies and treatments. Results will show if one group has a better outcome than the other.
This is usually conducted in one of two ways:
One group receives an existing treatment for a condition, and the second group receives a new treatment. Researchers then compare which group has better results.
One group receives a new treatment, and the second group receives a placebo, an inactive product that looks like the test product.
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I had prostate cancer [a very aggressive form of that cancer] surgically removed 4 years ago. Then it came back a few months ago, so now I am in radiation and hormone therapy. I am near the end of nine weeks of daily radiation. As my oncologist said yesterday, the surgery delayed the cancer and gave me an additional 4 years of a healthy standard of living. My current radiation and hormone treatment should give me another 3 or 4 years of doing okay. Then it may come back again. My cancer is already stage 4, so if it comes back, it will likely be scattered in my bones through-out my body. Then we start the ever increasing doses of pain meds.
The surgery, the radiation and hormone stuff delay the cancer. The cancer might just decide to stop, or it might decide to come back after a couple years. These treatments just buy you a couple years each time.
Until you reach the point where all you can do is pain meds.
My oncologist was complaining about the government restricting his ability to prescribe pain meds. As an oncologist all of his patients have cancer, and in most cases the procedures only delay the cancer growth. Eventually many cancer patients will get to the point where they are in terrible pain and the only thing left for the medical profession is to hand out opiates.
I'm pretty sure some clinical trials have placebo groups, but it depends on the protocol that is being used.
Comparison groups
Most clinical trials use comparison groups to compare medical strategies and treatments. Results will show if one group has a better outcome than the other.
This is usually conducted in one of two ways:
One group receives an existing treatment for a condition, and the second group receives a new treatment. Researchers then compare which group has better results.
One group receives a new treatment, and the second group receives a placebo, an inactive product that looks like the test product.
You're wrong. Placebo alone is never used in cancer trials, because it would be unethical. Generally the arms are 'standard treatment plus new drug' versus 'standard treatment plus placebo'. That way no one knows which patients received what therapies until the trial is over and the results analysed. (Some trials have more than two arms, but the general principle is the same.) No one is ever assigned to an arm which offers placebo alone. BOTH groups are getting treatment!
(FYI, I sit on my hospital's IRB, and play an active role in approving clinical trials at my institution. So I'm not just talking out of my a$$. The quote you provided from that website is oversimplifying things to the point of being actively misleading.)
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