Tag: cancer

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Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

How is it that in 2018 cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski is still preying on desperate cancer patients?

Stanislaw Burzynski
Stanislaw Burzynski. Arrogant as ever.

In the 1970s, young polish expat and cancer researcher Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski thought he had found a cure for many incurable cancers. He dubbed it antineoplastons (ANPs_. Unfortunately, he left the path of science and started treating patients before he had evidence that ANPs work. Four decades later, without ever having published compelling evidence for anticancer efficacy of ANPs, he’s still luring desperate patients to his clinic. Now he’s set to branch out to quack clinics in Mexico. Why can’t the law stop him?

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

The dubious cancer “virotherapy” Rigvir returns with an equally dubious case report

Rigvir virotherapy
This is how Rigvir kills cancer cells, according to its proponents. Unfortunately, the evidence to support this model is close to nonexistent in the peer-reviewed biomedical literature. Evidence that it actually works in humans is even more scarce, although the International Virotherapy Center claims it has it. Oddly enough, it hasn't published it and admits its evidence doesn't live up to current expected standards. Yet it sells Rigvir anyway.

Rigvir is a “virotherapy” from Latvia promoted by the International Virotherapy Center and, increasingly, by alternative cancer clinics. There is no convincing scientific evidence for its efficacy. That didn’t stop its advocates from presenting a case report. Not surprisingly, the case report isn’t convincing either.

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Bad science Biology Cancer Medicine Science

Conspiratorial fear mongering about cell phones and cancer, courtesy of The Nation

Smartphones
Smartphones

The overwhelming scientific consensus is that it is incredibly unlikely that cell phone radiation causes cancer or other health problems. That doesn’t stop The Nation from constructing a conspiracy theory inn which cell phone companies are likened to tobacco companies in their campaign of denial designed to hide evidence of harm while disingenuously claiming to be neutral regarding the science and saying that scientists should determine whether radiation from cell phones is hazardous.

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Biology Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Medicine Science

The “interstitium”: Interesting science versus PR spin and pseudoscience

Interstitium

Last week, the media were awash with reports of the “interstitium,” which was dramatically described as a hitherto undiscovered “organ,” a narrative that was definitely a triumph of PR over science that went beyond what even the investigators claimed in their paper. Worse, the investigators themselves even speculated that their discovery could “explain” acupuncture and other kinds of alternative medicine, thus providing an opening for quacks to run wild with their discovery, something I expect to see very soon.

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Cancer Medicine Quackery

The deadly false hope of German alternative cancer clinics, part 3: Hallwang Clinic revisited

Hallwang Clinic, where Gamma Nuttall was treated
Hallwang Clinic

I’ve written twice before about German alternative medicine cancer clinics, the quackery they ply, and how they take advantage of desperate cancer patients. Finally, in a disturbing report a journalist has investigated what one of these clinics (Hallwang) does and how such clinics can continue to operate.