Our Problem with Alternative Cancer Treatments

The purpose of this blog is to warn against alternative medicine, alternative medicine for cancer in particular. With alternative medicine we mean medical treatments which are used instead of standard therapy and for which there is no reliable indication of any efficacy.

Alternative Medicine: Does Belief Exonerate? Philosophy of Science for Beginners

Right from the start of this blog, purveyors and proponents of alternative medicine have posted comments or sent us emails explaining why we are wrong in thinking alternative medicine is dangerous and that we have no right to say it is deceptive.

Cancer Metastasis According to the Gospel of Tony Isaacs on Curezone

Doll made of liver cancer cells

Many proponents of alternative medicine claim that surgical removal of cancer is very dangerous because it will cause the cancer to spread. Therefore, they strongly advise against any kind of surgery in case of cancer.

On Tony Isaacs’s Curezone, a forum member is asking advice on how to treat advanced liver cancer. The patient in question – the forum member’s mother – has previously undergone surgery. But according to Tony Isaacs it is precisely surgery that causes cancer to metastasize:

Science and Compassion: Compassionate Use for Cancer

Through my twitter I came across an article in the New York Times about a problem that many mainstraim doctors and patients are faced with.

The article is about doctors bending the rules of clinical trials in order to get patients enrolled in clinical trials for which they would otherwise not qualify.

Alternative Medicine and Why It Seems To Work

Very rarely have alternative treatments or medication been able to show any therapeutic value. Yet countless people swear by it and are convinced they can’t do without.

The mysterious placebo effect has everything to do with this. But what is it and how does it work? Harriet Hall explains.

What you should know about chiropractic

This article was originally published in The New Scientist

For many people, chiropractic appears almost mainstream. Some chiropractors even call themselves “doctor”. In the UK, chiropractors are regulated by statute, and in the US they like to be seen as primary care physicians. It is therefore understandable if people hardly ever question the evidential basis on which this profession rests. 

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) for Cancer or Autism: Don’t Try This at Home

On April 15 we had a post on Jenny McCarthy claiming that HBOT (Hyperbaric Oxyen Therapy) is able to cure and prevent cancer. However, there is no evidence for this claim whatsoever. 

Other claims about alternative use of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy include that it helps patients with autism, but again, there is no scientific evidence to support these claims. 

New on See This! Images, Photos and Videos of Cancer

 

New images on See This!

Left is a microscopic image of rectal cancer. You can click here for the macro image of the same cancer. It is the second image on the page.

Guide to Alternative Therapies

Thanks Ed!

Have you ever seen the website of Ed Friedlander? He is a pathologist who created the internet’s busiest one-person medical site, with a wealth of information on all kinds of diseases, including cancer. On Mr. Friedlander’s site, we found this information on a number of alternative treatments for cancer. Friedlander has rated the treatments as follows:

• Confident: the remedy has a plausable mechanism and has been given some basic tests, and/or has solidly passed two good, clear, controlled studies;
• Optimistic: the remedy makes sense pathophysiologically, and there is at least impressive anecdotal evidence;
• Doubtful: the anecdotal evidence seemed interesting, but that’s all there was;
• Pessimistic: it’s understandable why somebody might have thought of this. But if this actually works better than a placebo and a little human kindness, we are all going to have to make some major readjustments in how we think about health and disease. Don’t spend too much money, or get your hopes up.

See also this website, where a pathologist shows that cancer is not caused by the common fungus Candida Albicans

The complementary medicine detective

Edzard Ernst, the UK’s first professor of complementary medicine who has become alternative medicine’s public enemy number one, has recently published a new book: Healing, Hype or Harm? A Critical Analysis of Complementary or Alternative Medicine. Michael Bond interviewed Edzard Ernst for The New Scientist.

See also this article in the Mail Online, on acupuncture and a number of other alternative therapies.