[arethuza]

It might not be possible in every case, but it sounds like a laudable goal to me.

Also, what do they tell people who take part in trials - I'd be pretty annoyed if I took part in a trial and someone told me "we can't tell you because with your humble CS education you wouldn't understand it".

[ekianjo]

People who take part in trials usually dont care about the science, they take part in it because all the other treatments failed and they are willing to try something new. That's their main incentive, at least for life threatening diseases.

[andygates]

Not really true. Phase 1 (safety and tolerance) trials will be done by any old berk. And I've entered trials because yay, science, even if I have a disease that's treatable by an existing clunky method.

[ekianjo]

Oncology phase 1 trials are made on cancer patients only, so no, your statement is not 100% correct.

Plus, phase I trials are really limited in size, so they are meaningless versus the total population of people who go on clinical trials for phase 2 and 3 - and these are patients always.

[arethuza]

What percentage of clinical trials involve people in those kinds of situations?

[ekianjo]

All oncology trials. And thats already A LOT.

[arethuza]

That's not actually answering my question. :-)