25 ms·
I think it's more that researchers frequently overstate the likelihood of their work leading to a cure and seldom publish negative results.
by jdc 7y ago
I think it's more that researchers frequently overstate the likelihood of their work leading to a cure and seldom publish negative results.
- cannonedhamster 7y agoActually they do publish most of the results, it's just negative results don't usually generate lots of press. With cancer patients it's typically late stage cancer patients on clinical trials, many/most of which die regardless of the treatment. A very positive treatment can be on the order of a few months of increased overall survivability on average. Typically this means some patients get a very positive result but most patients have so results either because they aren't a good match for the treatment or are too damaged to live longer anyways due to comorbidities. Unless you're constant following the studies you're unlikely to see the negative results.