That's what I keep thinking. One wrinkle here is that the calorie restricted days are those leading up to chemo, which were the only days my dad (who had esophageal cancer) could eat very much.
How could we know if this was survivorship bias? What if the folks who can best comply with the calorie restrictions are those who are already in a good state?
Their "better response rate" touted at the top ignores the 2/3 of women who couldn't carry out the assigned FMD.
When you fold back in those 2/3 of people on that arm, the response rate is the same:
"The overall pCR rate was 11.7% and did not differ between the two groups (10.8% in FMD group versus 12.7% in control group; OR 0.830, 95% CI 0.282–2.442, P = 0.735)."
How could we know if this was survivorship bias? What if the folks who can best comply with the calorie restrictions are those who are already in a good state?