Are clinical trials using animal studies always valid for humans? Consider me a skeptic.

I frequently see advertisements and newsletters (even some written by physicians) that promote lab tests and treatments based entirely on studies done using rodents. These “experts” frequently draw conclusions from these studies that their lab test or product is a breakthrough of vital importance to humanity. While it may be true, all too often it’s not.

Let me give you a recent example of a study done in mice that could lead to the conclusion that every woman with breast cancer should be taking very robust doses of the adrenal hormone DHEA. This study should serve both as an encouragement and as a caution, an example of the care we must exercise when we use animal studies to draw conclusions about humans.