Contrary to public perception, many alternative cancer cure claims thought to be unproven have actually been disproven in clinical studies.
- From: J <nexsw@nvalid,anon>
- Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2007 04:01:29 -0400
<http://www.curetoday.com/currentissue/features/feature1/index.html>
[excerpts]
No matter what the prognosis, experts say alternative medicine is never a
replacement for conventional cancer treatment.
America?s fascination with alternative medicine took root during colonial
times when patients longing to escape such torturous?and largely
ineffective?medical practices as bloodletting and purging, turned to steam
baths of botanical herbs to find a cure for what ailed them. An uneasy
alliance with conventional medicine has existed ever since.
The popularity of mainstream medicine surged in the 1940s when antibiotics
were used successfully to control infectious diseases, but by the ?60s and
?70s, patients rebelled against modern medicine in favor of a more
holistic approach that treated the body, mind and spirit. The concept of
holistic medicine morphed into two general practices: alternative and
complementary.
Although often identified by the acronym CAM (complementary and
alternative medicine), leaders in the field say the term is problematic
based on their distinct differences. Alternative therapy refers to
unproven or disproven treatments that are used instead of standard or
proven therapy, and complementary therapy is used in addition to standard
medicine to help improve quality of life and relieve chemotherapy and
radiation side effects. The term ?integrative? is now used to more
accurately describe CAM therapies that complement conventional cancer
therapy.
Despite the unproven claims of many integrative and alternative medicine
practices, its popularity finds Americans spending up to $47 billion a
year on various therapies for different illnesses?$5 billion on herbal
products alone. According to the National Health Interview Survey
conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, 62 percent of
Americans use some form of unconventional therapy, including a vast array
of approaches, such as taking biologically based products like herbs and
megavitamins; special diets; chiropractic care, acupuncture and massage;
and relaxation techniques like Reiki, yoga and guided imagery.
The study of alternative medicine gained legitimacy in 1992 when the
National Institutes of Health launched the Office of Alternative Medicine,
now called the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine,
to investigate alternative and complementary medicine with the same
scientific rigor as conventional therapies. Currently, NCCAM has funded
more than 1,500 clinical trials, including 83 that involved cancer.
Besides determining the efficacy of alternative and integrative medicine,
the NCCAM studies have the added benefit of independently proving whether
they are safe. ?Companies [who manufacture dietary supplements] have no
incentive to pay for clinical trials themselves because they don?t have
to,? says Sidney Wolfe, MD, director of the Health Research Group for
Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog group in Washington, D.C. ?And one
after another, these studies are turning out to show these things don?t
work.?
The onus to prove the efficacy and safety of herbal medicines was taken
off the shoulders of the dietary supplement industry in 1994 with the
passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which
restricts the authority of the Food and Drug Administration to regulate
dietary supplements, which includes vitamins, minerals, herbs or other
botanicals and amino acids, among others. ?There?s the pretense that
because something is ?natural? there is no legal requirement to prove it
is safe or to prove it works, and once you have a law forbidding the FDA
from requiring any evidence on that, everything out there is a fraud until
proven otherwise. And worse than just being a fraud, a number of these
things are dangerous,? Dr. Wolfe says.
Just how dangerous was made clear in 2002 when the FDA removed from the
market a patented herbal product called PC-SPES (PC: prostate cancer;
spes: Latin word for hope), which was touted to promote prostate function
and taken as an alternative treatment for prostate cancer.
?PC-SPES was shown in phase I and phase II studies to be effective in
reducing PSAs in men with prostate cancer,? says David Rosenthal, MD, past
president of the Society of Integrative Oncology and professor of medicine
at Harvard Medical School. ?But an NCI-funded randomized trial of the
product found there were impurities within the product. For example, there
was an anticoagulant, so people were having bleeding problems. And other
batches of the product contained hormones, and we know that estrogen and
estrogen-like hormones treat prostate cancer,? which likely explains the
misleading effectiveness of the product in early-phase trials.
Buyer Beware
Contrary to public perception, many alternative cancer cure claims thought
to be unproven have actually been disproven in clinical studies. As far
back as 1955, the American Cancer Society launched a Committee on Quackery
to review cancer cure claims. In the 1980s the organization investigated
alternative cancer cures, such as Laetrile, high-dose vitamin C and
detoxification, all of which were proven useless or harmful.
.....<see webpage>
Desperate Measures
Cancer patients may shun conventional treatment in favor of alternative
medicine for a number of reasons, from mistrust in Western medicine to
believing no other options are left.
?I have patients who have been told by their oncologists that they only
have a year to live and they can be given chemotherapy but it will make
them sick. If somebody told you that, you would probably run away seeking
something alternative too,? says Donald Abrams, MD, chief of
hematology/oncology at San Francisco Medical Center and director of
clinical programs at UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine.
The emotional impact of such a prognosis can cause distress for the
patient as well as family members, making it difficult to evaluate the
validity of information about unorthodox remedies. Patients should discuss
with their doctor or an integrative medicine professional anything they
are considering that falls outside proven therapy or that has not been
prescribed, particularly since harmful drug interactions can occur.
For an alternative to alternative medicine, medical experts suggest
patients consider a clinical trial testing a new therapy to combat cancer.
?I?ve seen a lot of progress in our ability to treat cancer and prolong
survival. I am not going to tell somebody I think you should take shark
cartilage or go to Tijuana,? says Dr. Abrams.
No matter the prognosis, Cassileth says replacing conventional treatment
with alternative medicine is not an option for cancer patients. ?There are
no viable literal alternatives to mainstream cancer care. You get one shot
with cancer, and that?s treating it with surgery, chemotherapy or
radiation. If people delay treatment to try things that are promoted as
?alternatives,? what?s going to happen is that their tumors will grow and
their chances of a cure are infinitely less,? she says.
While many alternative cancer therapies, such as Laetrile and metabolic
therapy, have been disproved, a lot of research is under way to study the
effectiveness and safety of various integrative disciplines. One of the
biggest areas of study involves the use of botanicals and herbs.
Researchers like Cassileth are investigating several botanicals looking at
whether they could boost immune function during standard cancer treatment.
?We?re not looking for a single-molecule pharmaceutical product,? she
says. ?We?re looking for interaction among the various constituents of
herbs and other botanicals that might enhance immune function or that
might produce some other benefit to cancer patients.?
Cassileth cautions nothing currently can replace conventional cancer
treatment. ?What we know right now is there?s absolutely nothing that can
be used as a substitute, but as an adjunct along with mainstream cancer
care, [botanicals] may be useful.?
The bottom line, say experts, is alternative medicine alone should never
be considered for cancer patients. A patient?s best bet: Work with a
professional health care team to develop an integrative treatment plan
that incorporates the best cancer care based on medical evidence and
experience.
.
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