Category: Cancer
The metastasis hoax?
An anonymous blogger cites a virus denier who claims that our understanding of the mechanisms of cancer metastasis is a "hoax." I cringe but cannot resist. Damn.
Cancer quackery: Under MAHA, everything old is new again
A viral Instagram post claims that cancer is not a disease, but rather a defense mechanism against "toxins." Everything old is new again under MAHA.
Just in Case
What oncology's hardest decisions can teach the rest of medicine.
A shoddy, ethically-challenged cancer study gets published… for now.
Update on ivermectin/mebendazole cancer study
Can Ivermectin and Mebendazole Treat Cancer?
A Closer Look at a Viral Claim
Using alternative medicine to treat cancer, even alongside conventional therapies, is still a bad idea
With the MAHA movement poised to introduce a lot more "integrative" or "complementary and alternative" treatments into oncology (and medicine in general), a new study shows the likely result.
MAHA: Everything old is new again, except this time antiscience cranks (like Stanislaw Burzynski) are in charge
Returning from my hiatus, I couldn't decide on a specific new topic, mainly because so much bad stuff happened in my absence. So, in this post I back up a bit to reflect on how RFK Jr.'s "make America healthy again" is nothing new. What is new is that the antiscience-cranks are in charge.
And so 2026 begins…with a resurrection of the myth that COVID vaccines cause “turbo cancers”
I had hoped to let this cup pass, but, after a week and a half, I found that I couldn't. Eminent oncologist and cancer researcher Dr. Wafik El-Deiry is back and doubling down on the unproven claim that COVID vaccines cause "turbo cancers," this time with an added dash of conspiracy theory. What happened to him?
Here we go again: Another study is being misrepresented as evidence that COVID vaccines cause cancer
An eminent oncologist, cancer researcher, and cancer center director is promoting a study that seems to show—but, when critically examined, doesn't—that COVID vaccines are associated with increased cancer risk.
Natural History
It usually takes me several weeks to write these essays, in part because I am slow, and in part I have more to do in retirement than I ever did when working. But as this goes live, I am recovering from a new knee replacement. As I age I am having everything that fails and either be replaced or removed. Orchiectomy next?...