You don t trash sacred dogma without meeting resistance. For as long as I can remember, academicians and doctors of high estate and low sensibility, have worshipped at the altar of the Randomized Double-Blind Controlled Trial. Cancer patients tend to steer clear of them, despite the warm invitation of researchers whose livelihoods depend on them. Only two out of 100 patients volunteer. Panic and confusion are frequent fellow travelers with a diagnosis of cancer.
Many doctors discourage their patients from exploring other options.
Hospitals and clinics usually do not discuss alternatives because their incomes are dependent upon the amount of chemotherapy they can prescribe. It is chance, not the patient, which decides whether one is assigned to the experimental arm or the placebo arm of a trial. Once one surrenders one s choices to a drug company the die is cast. The transformation of a human being into a guinea pig is an ominous process. The advantages of non randomized trials are many.