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From: hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath)
Newsgroups: net.med,net.women
Subject: Re: Breast Cancer Treatment.
Message-ID: <560@ttidcc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 16-Jul-85 18:36:25 EDT
Article-I.D.: ttidcc.560
Posted: Tue Jul 16 18:36:25 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Jul-85 13:01:57 EDT
References: <1765@aecom.UUCP> <1271@mnetor.UUCP>
Reply-To: hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath)
Distribution: na
Organization: The Cat Factory
Lines: 32

In article <1271@mnetor.UUCP> sophie@mnetor.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) writes:
>>                          ...  Women were randomly assigned to
>> total masectomy, segmental masectomy alone, or segmental 
>> masectomy followed by breast irradiation.
>
>*randomly* assigned (!?!) outch!!!  Did the patients know that their
>treatment was decided *randomly* ?  Whatever happened to the hypocratic
>oath?  couldn't they do this on monkeys or something?  I don't know
>what other people think, but this sounds like wonderful grounds for
>malpractise suits.

This is  standard  experimental  procedure.  Assuming  it  was  done  by  a
reputable  institution,  the women involved would have known they were part
of an experiment and probably signed a consent form stating they understood
the nature of the situation.

Note that _all_ of the treatments involved have been used in  the  past  to
treat breast cancer.  The purpose of the experiment was to determine if any
one of them was more effective than the  others.  Without  the  results  of
this  experiment  it's likely that total mastectomy would have continued as
the treatment of choice for breast cancer.  Given the results, the women in
the  total  mastectomy  group  of  the  experiment may be among the last to
undergo such treatment.

I see nothing to worry Hippocrates here, or to justify a malpractice suit.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe)
Citicorp TTI                      Common Sense is what tells you that a ten
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Santa Monica, CA  90405           one pound weight.
(213) 450-9111, ext. 2483
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