Jab brought ‘unprecedentedly strong responses’ in patients whose disease had become resistant to chemotherapy and immunotherapy
In an international trial spanning 11 countries, the injection was offered to patients whose cancer had spread or come back and whose disease had failed to respond to other treatments.
In the trial, 102 patients with head and neck cancer, the world’s sixth most common cancer, were given the jab. Tumours shrank or disappeared completely in 43 patients, including 28 whose tumours shrank significantly and 15 who saw them eradicated entirely.
This sounds great, and I’m happy for those who had good results.
But what happened to the other 102-43-28-15 = 16 patients? Because if they all spontaneously combusted after taking the treatment, that might change how you view things…
I think the numbers are worse. The 43 includes those with tumors that shrank or disappeared. In otherwords: 43 (shrank and disappeared) = 28 (shrank) + 15 (disappeared).
So what happened to the other 102 - 43 = 59? Still it’s roughly 40% chance of improvement when other treatment methods have failed, which I think a lot of people would be willing to take. I’m often skeptical about early results though.
Yeah, the positi e results suggest it’s worth the risk, but they don’t say anything about the neutral or negative results.
It might be 40% chance of improvement and.60% chance of death from side-effects
this here - the 43 is is the total.