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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Starchild Abraham Cherrix: The elephant in the room

I hadn’t intended to mention this case again for a while, but an article in Stats.org brought up a point that, although I had somewhat alluded to it, I hadn’t really explicitly addressed. It has nothing to do with the judicial decision, the Cherrixes’ successful appeal for a new trial and the stay ordered by […]

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery

Some questions for those who decry the decision in the Abraham Cherrix case

Not surprisingly, since the court decided that Abraham Cherrix, a Virginia teen who was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease at age 15, underwent chemotherapy, relapsed, and then refused to undergo any further chemotherapy, opting instead for an “alternative medicine” treatment known as the Hoxsey treatment, to be administered at the Biomedical Center in Tijuana, the blogosphere […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

The decision is in: Starchild Abraham Cherrix must have chemotherapy

I tell you, I take a night off from blogging, not even glancing at the blog or my e-mail, instead falling into a deep slumber at 10 PM after The Dog Whisperer on TV, thanks to a somewhat stressful week and a large meal plus a beer, and what happens? Abraham’ Cherrix’s uncle comments on […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Choosing quackery over evidence-based medicine: When is a patient old enough?

Over the couple of days or so, a minor flurry of comments have hit the ol’ blog. I hate to let commenters dictate the content of my blog, but it’s strictly a coincidence that this happens to be a post I had been planning sometime this week anyway and it comes around the same time […]

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

The Cancer Blog goes woo

I used to like The Cancer Blog. I really did. It was one of the first medical blogs I discovered many months ago when I first dipped my toe into the blogosphere. Indeed, less than two months after I started blogging, one of The Cancer Blog’s bloggers then, Dr. Leonardo Faoro, even invited me to […]