lynx picture  

CancerLynx - we prowl the net
March 12, 2001

The Median Isn't the Message
Karolen I. Paularena
In Memorium
July 18, 2001


Fifteen years ago, when my mom had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, we'd go in to see her onc. We'd ask what the odds were, how likely she was to respond to the therapy, the usual stuff.
What the onc said to us was essentially this:
If you put 100 patients in front of me, I can tell you ABOUT how many of them will live, and how many will not. I can tell you ABOUT how many will respond to a particular therapy. If you put 1000 patients in front of me, I can do even better.
But YOU will either respond to the therapy, or not. YOU will live, or die. And I don't know which it will be. It's not like flipping a coin. I can't average it out.
The statistics help me think about what the best treatment options might be, but they don't tell me the answer to the question -- will it work for you? The statistics tell me about how many patients will live in the US with your disease, they tell me NOTHING about you.

The take-home message was there isn't a 20% chance of a therapy working for my mom (or now, for me) just because 20% of the Phase III population responded. That therapy would either work, or it wouldn't. And we wouldn't know until it did or it didn't.

- Karolen


You are welcome to share this © article with friends, but do not forget to include the author name and web address. Permission needed to use articles on commercial and non commercial websites. Thank you.

one pawprintCancerLynx.com one pawprintWhat do you think? one pawprint

lynx kitten picture