Yet the median may be a horribly misleading statistic in this case. Suppose that many patients do not respond to the new treatment but that some large number of patients, say 30 or 40 percent, are cured entirely. This success would not show up in the median (though the mean life expectancy of those taking the drug would look very impressive). In this case, the outliers—those who take the drug and live for a long time—would be highly relevant to your decision.
