Ann: Ethics submission to commence cardioprotection trial, page-25

Response from DrT

In order to be able to measure the cardioprotective effect is why we are running the first trial - this data will will be used to construct the synthetic control arm.

Preventing cardiac damage from chemotherapy is not something that is likely to have a placebo effect. We are measuring the actual function of the heart which is not the sort of thing that responses to a placebo.

As an aside placebo effects outside of pain perception are rare. Most of what is called the placebo effect is really just regression to the mean. Many diseases cycle up and down in severity and patients tend to undertake treatment (or enter a trial) when they are feeling most unwell. If you start monitoring a patient when they are at their worst and they naturally get better as their disease cycles back down then you are going to see an improvement from whatever treatment you give the patient.