OK, I like leverage and your ZENTARIS post got my attention.
But the slides re. the Escudier presentation? They're making patients drink 240 ml. of this gunk, and then comparing the 240 group vs. a 60 ml. group for that p=0.01?
Placebo?? If you're proposing that your homogenate has something in it that is highly effective, you pick 25% of that dose as your comparator only if you're desperate to have a nice chart.
Moreover, it cites the study by Batist et al. In that study, the RCC results were subgroup analysis and there were only 8 patients in the 60 ml. group.
A reprint costs $19. If nobody has the paper, I may buy it just to see if there was a placebo control. The slide says that a phase III trial was designed, based on these results. No placebo control? Subset analysis? Dose response assumed when only two doses were administered, and when one group had only eight patients? Dose in the phase III trial is 120 ml, or only twice the comparator that was used for that fancy p value?
What is "probablility of survival"? What's wrong with "survival"?
Patients were excluded from the study if they were taking other cartilage-derived products. How many over-the-counter products are out there?
Thanks, very much, for the ZENTARIS tickler. I'll look into the backgrounds of management a bit more. Personally, I'd worry if I were a shareholder and looked at 60 vs. 240 when 120 was chosen for the trial.
Maybe they're DROWNING some cancers? |
