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Alternative cancer therapies linked to reduced survival
Cancer patients who use alternative therapies may be more likely to shun conventional treatments and risk their chances of survival, research suggests.
A study of 1,290 patients in the US found people who received such therapies often refused life-saving care such as chemotherapy or surgery.
Fewer of them survived five years after starting treatment compared to those on standard care, researchers found.
Experts urged patients not to ditch proven cancer medicines.
Tell that to Steve Jobs.
Complementary Medicine, Refusal of Conventional Cancer Therapy, and Survival Among Patients With Curable Cancers (open, DOI: 10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.2487) (DX)
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Alternative Therapies for Cancer Patients Reduce Survival Rates
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(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday July 22 2018, @09:30PM
All too true, however - in oncology, there are riduculously high numbers of tracked and documented, some treatments go back 50+ years (including radiation and chemo), so they actually do have some scientific basis for the numbers.
On the other hand, I had (still have a bit of) a schwannoma which the first MD mostly extracted before he identified/classified it. It grew back to about 30% of its previous size, I had moved 1000 miles away and so went to visit another MD who cheerfully informed me that "I want to get that whole thing out, soon as possible, it can spread turning into a string of beads, I have an opening in surgery next Tuesday you can schedule as you leave...." Umm... pass? I did a quick Google search and, indeed, in the first page there was a reference to a Japanese man who had a schwannoma on a nerve between his ribs and it did indeed present as a string of beads. However, no other reference to schwannoma out of the dozens I checked referenced a string of beads presentation, and even searches for schwannoma string of beads only turned up the one reference at the time - though I see a few more today, but the overwhelming body of reference was much less: big and scary, schedule surgery for extraction immediately and much more: if it is not a problem presently, wait and see. A few years later I visited another MD and that was her first advice, and now 15+ years later it would seem that she and I were correct: surgery not required.
🌻🌻 [google.com]