Of course, making aggressive cancer treatment safer was what BMT was supposed to accomplish. Perhaps if the studies had been able to enroll more patients more quickly, the results might have been more clear and timely. Unfortunately, although thousands of women underwent the BMT protocol, only a few hundred entered the National Cancer Institute-sanctioned trials, the source of the recently released report. Most, if not all, of the women who received treatment outside the NCI trials were part of clinical studies of some kind, usually smaller studies that lacked great statistical potential because the patients were not randomized. Their outcomes, therefore, were not compared with those of randomly selected patients who did not receive the BMT protocol.
Some women think the treatment is too toxic or risky, while others insist on receiving it.
The fact is that, before trials begin, we don't know whether a treatment like BMT gives patients a better chance. Now those trials are over and we still don't know. Choosing whether to roll the dice with a randomized study or put your faith in an unproven treatment tests both the nerve and the conscience. When our son, James, tested positive for an antibody suggesting he might be susceptible to Type 1 diabetes, we consulted both friends and specialists about how to proceed. Putting him in a trial program meant that he would either receive an unproven, potential, treatment that could delay the onset of diabetes, or enter the untreated control group.