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Cancer Medicine Quackery Surgery

Ranjana Srivastava: When cancer patients want quackery

Regular readers will have noticed that I haven’t been blogging nearly as much as usual. All I can say is that a combination of personal and professional issues and obligations have gotten in the way. Also, I have been a bit under the weather, as hard as it is to believe that a Tarial cell-driven […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Quackery

Belief in alternative cancer cures: We have a lot of work to do to combat quackery

Earlier this week, a new survey from the American Society of Clinical Oncology showed that belief in alternative cancer cures is common, with roughly four out of ten Americans believing that “natural” alternative treatments alone can cure cancer, without any conventional oncologic therapies, like chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy. This survey points to just how ingrained misinformation about cancer is in our society and how much work advocates of science-based oncology have ahead of them to combat it.

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Popular culture Surgery

Suzanne Somers “grew a new breast” with stem cells plus fat transfer? Not so fast…

Suzanne Somers is back in the news, claiming that she “grew a new breast” with stem cells and fat transfer. But did she? Did she really? A careful look at what’s public about her story suggests nothing other than a bit of self-promotion during Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

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Cancer Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Helen Lawson and black salve: Cutting, burning, and poisoning “naturally”

Cancer quacks frequently characterize conventional treatments for cancer as “cutting, poisoning, and burning.” Yet, in Australia a woman with ovarian cancer chose black salve, in essence, “cutting, poisoning, and burning” (but mostly burning and without the cutting) to treat her disease. She died a horrible death. How can black salve still be a thing.

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Cancer Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

True believers and scammers in alternative medicine

In the online echo chamber promoting alternative medicine, there are varying degrees of deception. There are true believers (who are often victims), entrepreneurs (who are often true believers who found a profitable business), and scammers. The categories are not mutually exclusive.