Does that sound like they weren't sure about what they were doing or observing because they didn't have a control group?
I think you keep missing an essential point here. I agree with you about some of this. I am quite pragmatic about some things, and this seems to be going over your head.
But to speak to the science of these issues, let us return to the study in question. I don't know if any of the following is exactly true, or certain, but bear with me, to illustrate an important point in this matter.
We have a small group of people, undergoing a very expensive procedure, in a very expensive study. We can ignore the 14 people who did not benefit, they may all be dead by now as well. None of them cured their cancers.
But our miracle man, who did, let us look at what may have happened, besides the simple and obvious conclusion.
An older man, who has been through chemo, possibly surgeries, all kinds of medical procedures, tests, and after it all, the now cancer spreading, a death sentence, no hope. Maybe he is alone, maybe a widower. We don't know. We only know he is going to die, in pain, and soon.
He applies and it accepted for the study. (Or maybe his Oncologist submits for him). We know he is in, he was accepted. Now he is surrounded by very sophisticated Doctors, researchers, nurses and techs. They do many tests, the are very interested in him, he spends a lot of time having blood drawn, having scans done, answering questions, and is told they are taking his own immune cells, and they have found a few that can kill the cancer.
They tell him they are cloning them, making billions of them, and they will inject them back into his body, which they do, and hook him up to I.V.s to add more chemicals, to keep the precious cells alive, and to keep his body from killing them.
Now there are more tests, more scans, pretty nurses are all around, interested in him. Doctors talk to him, in a surrounding that has prestige, reeks of expense, complicated equipment, maybe he stays in a nice hotel near the center, or maybe a private room at the center.
He has to eat the best food, all the normal cancer treatments and care have to be provided as well. As the weeks go by, and the cells keep being injected, they continue to study him, examine him, and as the first little progress is observed, the Doctors and staff are elated, he is the only one who shows signs it is working.
He is elated as well. His family and friends are all around, constant socializing, much hope is burning bright, and as the cancers shrink, more excitement! It looks like it is working! Everybody knows it.
He knows it, his friends and love ones are exuberant, and even though the Doctors caution not to get ones hopes up, they can barely suppress the spring in their step, the nurses smile large, even the techs drawing blood, injecting the precious cells and chemicals to make them work, all around is a feeling of joy.
In this modern marvel of a medical center, the sounds of beeping and probes and examinations, tests, our patient lies at the center of it all, getting better, no doubt, the cancers are shrinking. He is told his body is fighting the cancer, it is winning the war, and he, he is the only one of them all that it has worked on!
One might call some of that a powerful incentive for a placebo effect.
We don't know. We also don't know if we took 15 patients and did all that to them, but only gave them some nutrients and placebos, what would happen. Which is why blinding, controls and placebos are used in many cases.
It is quite possible for somebody to rally their own immune response, and completely recover from "incurable" cancer, or cancers.
Not likely, but then, how may studies have tried that powerful of a placebo effect before?
