"...never was a news release..."???
Just as well given what a pathetic excuse of a study it was!
Not to mention that they don't even MENTION the word "calmare" anywhere! Why? There's no rule against using brand names, after all. Are they embarrassed or what?
On top of that, they admit it's a TENS device but apparently fail to recognize that leaving out the "trans" and calling it "cutaneous electrostimulation" doesn't fool anyone -- it only makes the authors look REALLY stupid -- but, given the lead author is a NURSE, most viewers would figure that anyway!
Moreover, they don't offer even a BRIEF explanation of what this alleged "scrambler therapy" is supposed to do! No doubt because they realize that the vast majority of MDs remember their basic neuroscience course and would fall down laughing at the explanation!
Then, as if to demonstrate most vividly what the word "STUPID" really means, they say:
"While the study technically remains open to obtain more experience with this procedure, the first 37 accrued CIPN patients are the basis of our final CIPN-related manuscript from this project (in development)."
So they're reporting data from an ongoing trial -- something that OBVIOUSLY biases any further data collection??? Not that it matters much since the study isn't blinded, randomized, controlled and, consequently, doesn't eliminate the possibility of placebo effects!
On top of that, they appear to be saying they have, in fact, stopped the trial since they plan on using the 37 patient data for their "final manuscript" of the "project."
BUT -- they're keeping the trial "open" in order to gain more experience??????????? Even ignoring that they should have had "adequate experience" before even starting the trial, who on earth runs a trial to gain "experience"? Not to mention that CTTC is supposedly "funding" the trial, and given that there are still 113 patients left to do, I would think CTTC might gripe about paying for someone's calmare tuition!
And then, as if to add further insult to ASCO attendees' intelligence, they don't even bother to report any statistical analysis. Instead they offer "descriptive summary statistics." They don't even provide ANY measure of variance -- no standard deviation, not even the range!
EVERYONE reading that poster will IMMEDIATELY wonder what kind of FOOL reports means without supplying any information about the variance. It renders the data TOTALLY and UNEQUIVOCALLY USELESS.
And the final consequence of all the the effort put into the "trial":
"...a prospective placebo-controlled clinical trial should be performed."
Well, duhhhhhhh! And it took them THREE YEARS and TEN authors to produce this? I sure hope CTTC didn't commit to spending too much money on Loprinzi and his gang because they look like a bunch of idiots!!
NOT releasing the abstract was probably the ONLY intelligent thing CTTC has done in seven years of messing with calmares!
