Tag: chemotherapy
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.
Paul Marik: Disparaging chemotherapy in order to sell cancer quackery
Everything old is new once again, as COVID-19 quacks rehash old cancer quack claims that chemotherapy doesn't work in order to sell their preferred cancer quackery.
Fenbendazole is fast becoming the laetrile of the 2020s
Antivaxxers who "repurposed" deworming drugs like ivermectin and fenbendazole are peddling cancer "miracle cure" testimonials that remind me of laetrile and Stanislaw Burzynski. Truly, everything old is new again.
The Role of Liquid Biopsies in Oncology
Liquid biopsies can be used to reduce the amount of chemotherapy used for patients with stage II colon cancer.
Deciding Which Risks to Take
No medical treatment is risk-free. Paul Offit's new book covers the history of innovations that went awry and advises how to balance the risks of new medical innovations with the risk of not treating.
Cold Caps Combat Hair Loss from Chemotherapy
Hair loss from chemotherapy can be prevented with cold caps, but scalp hypothermia has some downsides and may not be acceptable to all patients.
How can we counter misinformation from “chemo truthers”?
Denial of the benefits of chemotherapy is very prevalent in "natural health" movements. This denial is based on fear mongering, pseudoscience, and conspiracy theories and thus shares many similarities with the antivaccine movement. How can the misinformation spread by "chemo truthers" be countered on social media?
Clínica 0-19: False hope in Monterrey for DIPG patients (Part 5, A dubious poster is presented)
Clínica 0-19 is a clinic run by Instituto de Oncología Intervencionista (IDOI) Drs. Alberto Swiller and Alberto Garcia in Monterrey Mexico that claims to have a much higher rate of survival for patients with DIPG, a deadly brain cancer, than conventional treatments. Patients come there from all over the world for an unproven concoction of chemotherapy drugs administered directly into arteries feeding...
Dichotomous thinking and uncertainty in medicine and science
Medicine is by its very nature uncertain. Unfortunately, humans don't deal well with uncertainty, and our tendency towards dichotomous thinking leads us to think that if we're not absolutely certain about something we don't know anything.
Flipping the Script In Action: The Nick Gundersen Case
The tragic consequences of a boy with leukemia and a mother who believed an alternative medicine documentary-maker over her son's oncologist.