Department of error!

‘Oh – let no-one ever, ever doubt,What nobody is sure about!’ (Hilaire Belloc)

Hot off the Breath: the PANTHER-IPF trial dared to go where no man has gone before (at least for a very long time) and have a PLACEBO limb in a randomised controlled trial of treatment for IPF, and lo! Those randomised to the gold standard triple therapy arm did substantially worse, and this limb has rightly been terminated by the data monitoring board. On page 97, McGrath and Millar dissect the implications of this for the current treatment of IPF. As researchers and clinicians, we should also consider the wider implications: why was a high class placebo controlled randomised double blind trial of immunosuppressive therapy in IPF proposed by Jon Britton's group in Nottingham not supported in the early 1990s? How many patients have suffered harm because we have been …