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Clinical trials Computers and social media Medicine Popular culture

Crowdfunding to pay to be a research subject in a clinical trial: The case of Lily Wythe [UPDATED 1/23/2020—see addendum]

Lily Wythe is a teenaged girl with a deadly brainstem cancer whose case has made international news because of her family’s crowdfunding to get her into a clinical trial. Should investigators be allowed to fund trials this way?

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Autism Bad science Bioethics Clinical trials Medicine

Pay-to-play stem cell clinical trials: Abuse of the clinical trial process

Stem cell therapies show great promise, but as yet the vast majority of that promise has not been validated in rigorous clinical trials. Unfortunately, for-profit stem cell clinics are running clinical trials that require patients to pay to be part of them (“pay-to-play”). These trials are not rigorous. Even more unfortunately, it appears that some universities are also running “pay-to-play” clinical trials that bear an uncomfortable resemblance to those run by for-profit clinics.

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Bad science Bioethics Clinical trials Medicine Surgery

Olfactory mucosa tumors: Another complication of stem cell treatments

A recent case report of a spinal mass in a patient with spinal cord injury who received an olfactory mucosa implant shows that stem cells are not risk-free, even when done at a reputable hospital rather than at a for-profit quack stem cell clinics.

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Politics

For-profit stem cell clinics are turning ClinicalTrials.gov into a marketing tool

A fairly frequent topic on Science-Based Medicine is the issue of for-profit stem cell clinics selling unsupported stem cell-based treatments with little or no evidence to support them for huge amounts of money. I make no bones about it. In my estimation, every for-profit stem cell clinic is a quack clinic bilking patients with promises […]

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Homeopathy Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Naturopaths argue that they are science-based. Hilarity ensues.

Naturopathy is a form of pseudomedicine rooted in vitalism. However, naturopaths delude themselves into thinking they’re science-based. Hilarity always ensues when they make that argument.