Explaining Risk: Know Your Aristotle

To make informed decisions about your healthcare, we absolutely need to understand risk.  Whether you are facing cancer or deciding whether it's worth treating your blood pressure, understanding risk is central to understanding what your choices really mean.  Aristotle can help.  This is a great article everyone should read.  Click here to read it.

To put a smile on your face see Larry's latest cartoon.
To learn more about clinical trials, take a look at our book.


(c) 2012 Tom Beer and Larry Axmaker

What are cancer clinical trials about: a webinar for you

Today, Larry and I were joined by Evan Denhart in presenting a webinar about clinical trials.  In the two part discussion we talked about clinical trials, what they are, how they work, and what it is like to participate.  Then we discussed the AFFINITY study, a newly launched phase III clinical trial for advanced prostate cancer.  We took questions and had a great time.  See and hear it all here.  This presentation takes a while, so you can preview it quickly, but you will need to set aside a bit of time to get the most out of it.  Hope you enjoy it.

To put a smile on your face see Larry's latest cartoon.
To learn more about clinical trials, take a look at our book.

(c) 2012 Tom Beer and Larry Axmaker

KOIN TV visits about a new drug for prostate cancer

As part of their Stand Up to Cancer programming, KOIN-TV visited with us a bit ago.  This in an inspiring piece with one of our cancer patients.  We are so glad to see stories like this become a reality.


To put a smile on your face see Larry's latest cartoon.
To learn more about clinical trials, take a look at our book.

(c) 2012 Tom Beer and Larry Axmaker

An invitation to a reading at Powell's

If you are in Oregon, you surely know Powell's, our signature book store.  The largest independent bookstore in the country, I heard.



Larry and I will be visiting Powell's on Wednesday, September 12 at 7 P.M. for a reading and conversation about clinical trials

This is at the Cedar Hills Crossing Powell's store at 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd (not at the downtown store).

Details here

To put a smile on your face see Larry's latest cartoon.
To learn more about clinical trials, take a look at our book.

(c) 2012 Tom Beer and Larry Axmaker

Cancer Clinical Trials: what does “significant” mean?

When we hear the words there was a significant treatment effect, you would naturally assume that significant means large, important, or noteworthy. This may be true—but not necessarily. More often than not, significant refers to statistically significant, which means that the difference between the two groups of patients was statistically meaningful and unlikely to be random.

          Statistical significance is an important concept. Without measuring the statistical significance of study results in cancer treatment, it is possible that any effects may not even be real but rather just chance. However, statistical significance is not enough. Another medical term—clinically significant—means “important to patient care.” This is what we are after. If a small effect is statistically significant, it may still not be large enough for us to care much about it. Watch out for the word significant, and assume it’s likely “statistics-speak” and not necessarily the large, important improvement you might think.