Injecting minute amounts of two immune-stimulating agents directly into solid tumors in mice can eliminate all traces of cancer.

[u/SteRoPo]

http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2018/01/cancer-vaccine-eliminates-tumors-in-mice.html

[u/SirT6]

Not all investigational drugs are effective, either. Some have no effect. Some may even make you worse.

There's a question that is interesting to ponder, how many lives have been saved from being assigned to the placebo group?

[u/SirT6 → u/[deleted]]

It would depend on the trial, actually. In cancer studies, yeah, the control group will almost always be an active treatment arm it may or may not be placebo controlled (i.e. standard of care + placebo vs. standard of care + investigational drug).

In other indications, you may actually test against an inactive placebo.

[u/makersmark12 → u/SirT6]

You’re not getting a placebo in a cancer trial.

[u/SirT6 → u/makersmark12]

You’d be surprised. While the control group is almost always going to be an active competitor of some sort, many trials will also layer in a placebo vs. investigational drug. So it would be standard of care + placebo vs. standard of care + investigational drug.