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What exactly is a placebo and do cancer patients ever receive placebos in a clinical trial?

April 26, 2017cancer clinical trial Patients Placebo placebos

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What exactly is a placebo and do cancer patients ever receive placebos in a clinical trial?

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A placebo is a substance that looks like medicine, but is not. Cancer patients in a clinical trial always receive the best standard treatment available or a new treatment that researchers believe is as good or better. Only in specific circumstances are cancer patients given placebos in a randomized trial. If a placebo is used, researchers may give patients in the control group a placebo in combination with standard treatment to compare standard treatment alone to standard treatment with a new drug.