No controls, no comparison to patients with placebo epigenetics followed by standard treatment. Also tiny numbers in the overall study and no mention of controls. This is not science, but then again, sciencey magazines will publish just about anything these days.
"They tested tumor DNA from 26 of the 45 patients for four genes that, when methylated, predict that a lung tumor will soon grow back after surgery. Patients whose tumors had at least two methylated genes before treatment and later lost the methyl groups lived on average 10 months—4 months longer than patients without this pattern, according to the study, published today in Cancer Discovery."
They had 19 control patients for testing their epigenetic hypothesis with a possible rescue therapy in terminal patients. I'd be surprised if those Spaniards didn't have a review committee that approved of the experiment. There could be multiple genetic or chromosomal abnormalities that cause refractory advanced non–small cell lung cancer.
It's a preliminary study. It was received at Cancer Discovery on October 21, 2011. It was accepted the same day.