For many battling cancer, clinical trials can represent a beacon of hope—offering access to novel medications and frequent monitoring. This perceived benefit, known as the “trial effect,” has led doctors and patients alike to believe that participating in trials can improve health outcomes and extend lives.
However, a new study suggests that cancer patients may receive no survival benefit from clinical trial participation after all.
Cancer Trial Survival Edge Disappears in Rigorous Analysis
The systematic review and meta-analysis, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed data from 39 research papers between 2000 and 2022. The papers compared survival rates of cancer patients enrolled in clinical trials with survival rates of those receiving standard routine care, totaling 85 such comparisons.
A.C. Dahnke
Author
A.C. Dahnke is a freelance writer and editor residing in California. She has covered community journalism and health care news for nearly a decade, winning a California Newspaper Publishers Award for her work.
