Are antivaxers “holding science hostage”?
Melinda Wenner Moyer published an article in The New York Times arguing that fear of how antivaxers will react to scientific findings is leading scientists to self-censor. I'm not convinced that this is the case.
Angelina Jolie’s surgeon peddles misinformation about…breast cancer!
Dr. Kristi Funk is a surgeon to the stars in Beverly Hills who operated on Sheryl Crow and Angelina Jolie for breast cancer. This year, she published a book about breast health and breast cancer. Unfortunately, it's full of misinformation and radical advice with little or no basis in science.
Alternative medicine kills cancer patients, “complementary” edition
By definition, alternative medicine has not been shown to be effective or has been shown to be ineffective. Thus, alternative medicine is ineffective against cancer and can best be represented as either no treatment at all or potentially harmful treatment. It is thus not surprising that cancer patients who choose alternative medicine have a higher risk of dying from their cancer. A...
Clínica 0-19: False hope in Monterrey for brain cancer patients (part 3)
This is the conclusion of my series on Clínica 0-19, the cancer clinic where Drs. Alberto Siller and Alberto Garcia see patients with DIPG, a deadly brain tumor, whom they treat at Hospital Angeles in Monterrey Mexico with an unproven combination of intra-arterial chemotherapy with up to 11 drugs and a poorly defined dendritic cell immunotherapy. Some people have asked me: What's...
Clínica 0-19: False hope in Monterrey for brain cancer patients (part 2)
Last week, I discussed Clínica 0-19, a clinic in Monterrey, Mexico whose doctors claim to be able to treat the deadly brainstem cancer DIPG using intra-arterial chemotherapy and immunotherapy. This week, I discuss what I've learned since last week, specifically a lot more about just what it is that these doctors do, why it is scientifically dubious and unproven, and why I...
Clínica 0-19: False hope in Monterrey for DIPG patients (part 1)
Drs. Alberto Siller and Alberto Garcia run Clínica 0-19 in Monterrey, Mexico, which has become a magnet for patients with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a deadly brain cancer. Unfortunately, their treatment is an unproven combination of 11 chemotherapy drugs injected into an artery feeding the brainstem, plus an unknown and unproven "immunotherapy." Of course it all costs $300,000 or more for...
ASCO endorses the integration of quackery into breast cancer care
In 2014, the Society for Integrative Oncology first published clinical guidelines for the care of breast cancer patients. Not surprisingly, SIO advocated "integrating" dubious therapies with oncology. Last week, the most influential oncology society, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), endorsed a 2017 update to the SIO guidelines, thus endorsing the "integration" of quackery with oncology and paving the way for...
Science-based medicine versus other ways of knowing
It has been our position that science is the most effective means of determining medical treatments that work and whose benefits outweigh their risks. Those who promote pseudoscientific or prescientific medicine, however, frequently appeal to other ways of knowing, often ancient knowledge from other cultures and pointing out deficiencies in SBM to justify promoting their treatments. Do their justifications hold water?
Right-to-try is now law. Let patients beware!
Last week, President Trump signed the worst federal right-to-try bill under consideration by Congress into law. Its purpose was never to help terminally ill patients, and now that it's law there will be nothing the FDA can do to protect vulnerable terminally ill patients who choose it. That's a feature, not a bug. That's because right-to-try is the result of a collaboration...
CEASE therapy for autism: Homeopathic quackery and “self regulation” by naturopathic boards
Naturopathy is quackery. If you doubt this, consider that you can't have naturopathy without homeopathy. What's even worse is when naturopaths subject autistic children to quackery like CEASE therapy. Expecting any naturopathic regulatory board to investigate quackery in naturopathy is the proverbial fox guarding the henhouse.