Quote:
Originally Posted by chemgear
http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/story/...sis-ccsvi.html
"It is telling us that there is likely no benefit of balloon angioplasty in patients who have MS and have CCSVI and there is a possibility that at least in the early term, because this is six months, there is evidence there may actually be increased disease activity from balloon angioplasty."
Siddiqui said he's "concerned enough to suggest that patients not receive this treatment outside rigorously controlled clinical trials. That's important because not only did we not show any benefit in a very carefully selected cohort that was most likely to show benefit, we saw none. Instead we saw potential for harm."
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This is the result of a small pilot study involving 10 MS patients, and 10 without MS. Meanwhile 30,000 people have had the procedure at a cost of say $10,000 to $20,000. each...equivalent to an expenditure of close to 1/2 a billion dollars so far.
Considering the money spent so far, and the money that is continuing to be spent on the procedure, wouldn't it make sense to spend the money to do a large phase III study to decide once and for all if the procedure works?