Randomized controlled trial
"A clinical trial is defined as a prospective scientific experiment that involves human subjects in whom treatment is initiated for the evaluation of a therapeutic intervention. In a randomized controlled clinical trial, each patient is assigned to receive a specific treatment intervention by a chance mechanism."[1] The theory behind these trials is that the value of a treatment will be shown in an objective way, and, though usually unstated, there is an assumption that the results of the trial will be applicable to the care of patients who have the condition that was treated.
Ethics in selection of the intervention for the control group
Comparing a new intervention to a placebo control may not be ethical when an accepted, effective treatment exists. In this case, the new intervention should be compared to the active control to establish whether the standard of care should change.[2] The observation that industry sponsored research may be more likely to conduct trials that have positive results suggest that industry is not picking the most appropriate comparison group.[3] However, it is possible that industry is better at predicting which new innovations are likely to be successful and discontinuing research for less promising interventions before the trial stage.
Ethics in randomization
Is it ethical to treat patients according to a randomization schedule? The answer is:sometimes, depending on the choice of treatments, the medical condition of the patient, and whether the patient has a choice in the matter. Take a university professor who has just received the devastating diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor. Let us say that this particular tumor is resistant to radiation treatment and has infiltrated too much of the brain to be surgically removed, the professor has a fatal disease. There is one drug (Drug A) that has shown a limited benefit in clinical practice to retarding the growth of this tumor, but there not only no known cure for the professor's condition, there is not even a truly effective treatment to slow the progression of the disease. There is a thoeretical reason to believe that Drug B may be curative-or at least helpful, and Drug B has been tested in animal studies that indicate it should be reasonably safe in humans. In this situation, asking the professor to participate in a trial of Drug A, versus Drug B, in which the choice will be according to a code generated by a computer program is not unethical, assuming that the professor understands and agrees. However, let's change the scenerio. If there is a treatment that has some benefit, is it ethical then to ask for the professor's participation in this study? Let's go further, perhaps there is a treatment that has been reported to cure 10% of patients?
In most randomized trials, there is
External validation
References
- ↑ Stanley K (2007). "Design of randomized controlled trials". Circulation 115 (9): 1164–9. DOI:10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.105.594945. PMID 17339574. Research Blogging.
- ↑ Rothman KJ, Michels KB (1994). "The continuing unethical use of placebo controls". N. Engl. J. Med. 331 (6): 394–8. PMID 8028622. [e]
- ↑ Djulbegovic B, Lacevic M, Cantor A, et al (2000). "The uncertainty principle and industry-sponsored research". Lancet 356 (9230): 635–8. PMID 10968436. [e]