So-so grade for this story.
Good points:
Weaker points:
Hormone therapy is commonly used for men with advanced-stage prostate cancer (spread to bone), along with radiation therapy in high-risk men, and for men with rising PSA levels after attempted curative therapy. However,this story does not provide any information about the characteristics of the men receiving hormone therapy, including the indications for hormone therapy, the severity and duration of their hot flashes, and whether they had received conventional therapy for hot flashes (additional hormone therapy).
The story could have easily provided some cost estimate for four weeks of twice-weekly acupuncture sessions. But it didn’t.
Probably the weak point of the story.
The story only says “Their reported levels of hot flashes dropped markedly.” What does that mean? From what to what? Measured how? And in how many of the men? With no indication of what their baseline symptom severity was, there’s no way to interpret the sketchy results reported in the story.
The story also throws in a tag line that the same study “also found that acupuncture relieved the heart palpitations and anxiety often associated with hormone therapy for prostate cancer.” But no data were given to back up these claims.
There was no discussion of potential harms. Maybe none were found. Some past acupuncture studies report discomfort at the needling sites. One line could have easily addressed what was seen in this study or in related work.
Adequate.
The story mentioned that this was a very small study – only 14 men. And it turned to an independent expert who opined that the placebo effect could have been at play or that the symptoms simply went away on their own.
It could have explained that this study design–apparently just a case series without a control group–provides results of very limited validity.
NO disease mongering of the problem of post-prostate cancer treatment hot flashes.
One independent expert was interviewed.
There wasn’t any comparison given between what acupuncture did in this tiny study and what else is now done or is being investigated for hot flashes in such men.
Other hormone therapies and antidepressants are currently used.
Not applicable. The availability of acupuncture isn’t in question.
No context was given for placing this research into the bigger picture of what else is doing for the hot flash problem, or if other related acupuncture research has been done.
A study (Harding C, et al) was published in the British Journal of Urology International in January 2009, reporting on a larger pilot study of 60 men with advanced prostate cancer who did show substantial symptomatic improvement. Those authors called for randomized trials to more definitively determine benefit.
Mixed bag.
The story admits it drew its lead researcher quotes from a news release.
But it turned to an independent expert for analysis. Because that independent expert injected some questions about the limitations of the research, we’ll award this a barely satisfactory grade.
But why wasn’t the lead author himself interviewed?
Systematic, Criteria-Driven
The tale of two “negative” studies. Or, how spin is applied to make research findings look more impressive. A must read. https://johnmandrola.substack.com/p/the-tale-of-two-negative-studies
The @nytimes chose to interview one of the editors of the @AnnalsofIM (publisher of this paper) who "gushed with extraordinary glee: It’s huge! There are very few things that reduce your mortality by 30%."
Turns out coffee is not one of those few things despite all that glee. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1533202075928215558
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