Early Doubts a Classic Lancet Study Found Psychotherapy Improves Survival in Cancer
Repeated editorializing by David Speigel about his posthoc claim that support groups extended the lives of cancer patients could not erase the scientific consensus the claims were unwarranted.
“Jim, Of course I recall. You entered the ring just before (was it?) Bernie Fox died, and while I was taking the silenced route in order to avoid the muck of the Stanford administration and threatened lawsuit. You two were the only allies I knew of who would do the right thing.” — Stanford oncologist Wallace Sampson (2010 email reproduced at the end of this Substack article)
For over 2 decades, Stanford psychiatrist David Spiegel has protected his claim that a small study in which he was a therapist unexpectedly showed that support groups extended the lives of metastatic breast cancer patients. The conclusion was based on a post hoc eyeballing of a crucial table.
As an open minded skeptic, I welcome anyone to frame a posthoc hypothesis because this practice has often spurred sudden scentific advances. However, extraordinary post hoc claims that were not originally hypothesized invite extraordinary skepticism and attempted replication. Unfortunately, claims about long term followup re…