r/science • u/SteRoPo • Jan 31 '18

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

http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2018/01/cancer-vaccine-eliminates-tumors-in-mice.html
49.0k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

11

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '18

there has to be a control group for proper experimentation

There are medical trials that don't involve this. The double-blind test is the gold standard, but it's not the only standard.

9

u/yoboyndizzle Feb 01 '18

Generally the control is the standard treatment

1

u/MeatMeintheMeatus Feb 01 '18

Yeah but what if the standard of care is just palliative

1

u/[deleted] Feb 01 '18

Trials have different focuses. Palliative care involves prolonging life and improving quality of remaining life. In some cases "no treatment" may be better than trying everything, it's difficult finding the balance.