Some important things not mentioned in this press release (not to detract from the idea of new treatment approaches of any sort):
- All patients had their tumors surgically removed before they were started on treatment. Thus the trial wasn't testing cure so much as delay of recurrence.
- These were very superficial tumors, meaning they were growing on the very surface of the inner bladder, just like skin tags. These aren't the ones that kill people. Patients with superficial bladder cancer who don't respond to BCG can be treated for quite a while just by having the tumors surgically removed whenever they recur (using a minimally-invasive procedure known as a transurethral resection of bladder tumors, TURBT).
- Fun with words: the press release called this a clinical trial, but it's not -- it has no controls, no real statistics, no randomization, none of the things that make up the usual standard in medicine. The authors of the paper call it a "study", which is basically a research experiment. They don't use the word "trial" at all in the paper.
Having said all that, I still look forward to seeing a proper trial.
By the tenor of your response, I assume you understood what I meant in this very-non-medical of forums, which means you understood why the paper's authors themselves chose not to call their study a trial (even though they registered it as a "clinical trial", as is necessary for any clinical study in humans involving a treatment intervention). Which leaves me wondering about the purpose of your response.
I'm perturbed by PR-driving rhetoric in the medical world because of what this causes, e.g. another commenter asking about a family member and if this could be helpful. Seeing what isn't directly visible in the PR is important in this case.
- All patients had their tumors surgically removed before they were started on treatment. Thus the trial wasn't testing cure so much as delay of recurrence.
- These were very superficial tumors, meaning they were growing on the very surface of the inner bladder, just like skin tags. These aren't the ones that kill people. Patients with superficial bladder cancer who don't respond to BCG can be treated for quite a while just by having the tumors surgically removed whenever they recur (using a minimally-invasive procedure known as a transurethral resection of bladder tumors, TURBT).
- Fun with words: the press release called this a clinical trial, but it's not -- it has no controls, no real statistics, no randomization, none of the things that make up the usual standard in medicine. The authors of the paper call it a "study", which is basically a research experiment. They don't use the word "trial" at all in the paper.
Having said all that, I still look forward to seeing a proper trial.
Edit: wordsmithing.