Just an interesting fact I wanted to share. He points out that a number of cancer patients experience ‘spontaneous remission’ and that science simply does not know why this happens – but the occurrence does happen and its past frequency has been measured.
He then goes on to reveal:
The late astronomer Carl Sagan, a devoted promoter of scientific thinking and an obsessive enemy of non-science, examined the cures of from cancer that result from a visit to Lourdes in France where people were healed by simple contact with the holy waters, and found out the interesting fact that, of the total cancer patients who visited the place, the cure rate was, if anything, lower than the statistical one for spontaneous remissions. It was lower than the average for those who did not go to Lourdes! Should a statistician infer that cancer patients’ odds of surviving deteriorate after a visit to Lourdes?
Pg 139
(Now, the statistical part of me is asking whether the cancer patients going to Lourdes are a skewed sample or not – eg. If they were on average sicker than the average cancer patient, then the comparison should be the cure rates of a group of patients who are as sick as those who go to Lourdes… but for what it is worth, I thought I’d share the quote.)
Cheers,
Shafique
