Category: Clinical Trials
Do dietary supplements affect the survival of cancer patients?
Do dietary supplements offer advantages or risks to breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy?
More evidence that acupuncture doesn’t work for chronic pain
Acupuncture is a theatrical placebo whose real history has been retconned beyond recognition. A new systematic review of systematic reviews of acupuncture for chronic pain highlights that conclusion and catalogues the many weaknesses in the design of acupuncture clinical trials.
Ellura: A Supplement Backed By Evidence
Ellura is a dietary supplement marketed to treat recurrent urinary tract infections. There is promising evidence and a credible mechanism of action, and using it instead of antibiotic prophylaxis could reduce antibiotic resistance.
The Apple Heart Study
A recent study involving the Apple Watch raises some interesting points about modern clinical trials. It also has some implications and conclusions about screening for atrial fibrillation (a. fib).
Spinning a negative acupuncture study: Same as it ever was
Investigators at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center reported the results of a trial of acupuncture for xerostomia (dry mouth) secondary to radiation therapy for head and neck cancers. It was a negative trial, but investigators still tried to spin it as positive, but with a twist. There was a large difference between results found at M.D. Anderson and the second site in China....
Would you pay $1 million to enroll in a phase 1 clinical trial of an “anti-aging” gene therapy?
Libella Gene Therapeutics, LLC made the news last week for announcing a "pay-to-play" trial of its telomerase-based anti-aging gene therapy. What was shocking about the announcement was not that it was a "pay-to-play" trial, given that such trials have become all too common, but rather the price of enrollment: $1 million. Worse, the trial is being conducted in Colombia; the therapy doesn't...
Clínica 0-19: False hope in Monterrey for DIPG patients (Part 5, A dubious poster is presented)
Clínica 0-19 is a clinic run by Instituto de Oncología Intervencionista (IDOI) Drs. Alberto Swiller and Alberto Garcia in Monterrey Mexico that claims to have a much higher rate of survival for patients with DIPG, a deadly brain cancer, than conventional treatments. Patients come there from all over the world for an unproven concoction of chemotherapy drugs administered directly into arteries feeding...
The Cleveland Clinic publishes a study claiming to show benefits from functional medicine. It doesn’t.
Last week, the Cleveland Clinic published a study purporting to show that functional medicine improves health-related quality of life. Not surprisingly, on closer examination, there's a lot less to the study than meets the eye, and its results are quite underwhelming.
“SuperMannan Cures Bladder Infections!” Really?
The ads claim SuperMannan cures bladder infections. The science is a single uncontrolled study of 9 women; its design is a recipe for disaster.
Electromagnetic healing devices for dogs: Studies show “Meh”
Does a pulsed electromagnetic field device work to help dogs recover from surgery? The answer is below. Spoiler alert: The answer is "probably not".