Comment by inglor_cz
3 years ago
This napkin math ignores some very significant circumstances.
People who suffer from rectal cancer usually undergo surgery to remove the primary tumor. But those trial patients weren't operated on, their treatment was non-invasive.
How many rectal cancer sufferers who never undergo a surgery survive? I would bet that it is a lot less than 67 per cent.
And this was people with locally advanced rectal cancer. Typically this means the tumor has grown to a considerable size and is already causing symptoms severe enough for people to go to a specialist. I am not a doctor but my understanding is that a placebo in this case would have a 5 year survival rate that is pretty close to 0%.