James Coyne: The article provides a summary of my thinking about a seriously flawed study that gave false hope to breast cancer patients.

Quoting from a recent LinkedIn post by James Coyne, Emeritus Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania:

“New! Afterthoughts on a Classic Lancet Study That Did Not Show Psychotherapy Improves the Survival of Cancer Patients
How Stanford psychiatrist David Spiegel aggressively promoted his claim that participation in peer support groups extended the lives of women with metastatic breast cancer after it had been refuted.

The article provides a summary of my thinking about a seriously flawed study that gave false hope to breast cancer patients. Participating in a support group could extend their lives, even if their cancer was advanced (metastatic) and traditional medical interventions—chemo, surgery, and radiation—were ineffective at this advanced stage.
There is some originality to my thinking, but I depended heavily on the views of others who were similarly harassed and vilified for contradicting the Vice Chairperson of the Stanford Department of Psychiatry, David Spiegel.
The field of psycho-oncology and its namesake journal have an unfortunate history of powerful bullies’ naked attempts to damage the careers of anyone who did not share their evangelicism for the articles of faith that they determined that we needed to believe to be upstanding members of the Church of Psycho-Oncology.”

For the article click here.
Source: James Coyne/LinkedIn