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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine

The saga of Avastin and breast cancer

One of the most frustrating aspects of taking care of cancer patients is that in general, with a handful of specific exceptions, we do not have good curative therapies for patients with stage IV cancer, particularly solid tumors. Consequently, we are forced to view patients with stage IV cancer as “incurable” because, the vast majority […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

“Integrative oncology”: Quackademic medicine victorious?

One of the main topics that I’ve covered over the last four or five of laying down a swath of not-so-Respectful Insolence directed at pseudoscience is the relatively rapid, seemingly relentless infiltration of pseudoscience into what should be bastions of science-based medicine (SBM), namely medical schools and academic medical centers promoted by academics who should, […]

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Biology Cancer Medicine Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Fructose and pancreatic cancer

I hate science press releases. Well, not exactly. I hate science press releases that hype a study beyond its importance. I hate it even more when the investigators who published the study make statements not justified by the study and use the study as a jumping off point to speculate wildly. True, it’s not always […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Naturopathy Quackery

Cancer Treatment Centers of America, naturopathy, and “naturopathic oncology”

Note: Parts of this post have appeared elsewhere, but not in this form. If there’s one aspect of so-called “alternative medicine” and “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) is that its practitioners tout as being a huge advantage over what they often refer to sneeringly as “conventional” or “scientific” medicine is that — or so its […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Confusing workplace safety with patient safety and drug efficacy: Mike Adams brings the stupid home again

Wendy, I’m home. Oh, wait a minute. I’m not that crazy. Yet. Sometimes, though, it does seem as though the constant barrage of quackery, anti-vaccine pseudoscience, and pseudoscience in general might drive me to become like poor Jack Torrence of the Stephen King novel and movie The Shining. Fortunately for me, I discovered that there […]