Recently published 2020 American Cancer Society statistics show that overall cancer mortality continues to decline. In fact, it's declining faster than ever, thanks to science-based medicine and public health.
Category: Cancer
What causes ALL? An antivaxxer says—surprise!—it’s vaccines
What causes ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukemia)? To antivaxxer John Jones, the answer is obvious: vaccines!
Acupuncture for xerostomia: Spin, spin, spin a negative study!
Investigators at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center reported the results of a trial of acupuncture for xerostomia (dry mouth) secondary to radiation therapy for head and neck cancers. It was a negative trial, but investigators still tried to spin it as positive, but with a twist. There was a large difference between results found at M.D. Anderson and the second site in China. What could be going on?
Clínica 0-19 and IDOI: Not making DIPG history in Monterrey, part 5, IDOI-1
Drs. Alberto Siller and Alberto Garcia are at it again at Clínica 0-19, peddling a dubious case series touting their DIPG treatment. Let's just say that it does not demonstrate that their treatment is better than existing treatments; i.e., not very good.
Toni Bark has cancer
Toni Bark is an antivax physician. Recently, she announced that she has cancer. She is also expressing amazement that she could get it, given her supposedly incredibly healthy lifestyle.
A tourist finds breast cancer after a thermal scan at Camera Obscura. That doesn’t mean thermography works.
Bal Gill saw a hot spot on her breast on a thermal image she had taken at Camera Obscura in Edinburgh. This led her to see her doctor, who diagnosed breast cancer. Although a happy coincidence, this incident does not mean that thermography is an effective modality to detect occult breast cancer.
Pediatric naturopathic oncology: A horrifying concept
"Naturopathic oncology" is a specialty made up by naturopaths in order to justify using their quackery to treat cancer patients. A new survey takes it a step further and looks at using naturopathy to treat children with cancer, including the use of homeopathy, reiki, and restrictive diets.
Kylee Dixon: Oregon intervenes to treat her cancer
Kylee Dixon is a 13-year-old girl with undifferentiated embryonal sarcoma of the liver whose mother stopped chemotherapy and has been treating her with CBD oil. The State of Oregon intervened to see that Kylee undergoes appropriate surgery. Where do "parental rights" end and the child's rights begin?
For-profit stem cell clinics are turning ClinicalTrials.gov into a marketing tool
A fairly frequent topic on Science-Based Medicine is the issue of for-profit stem cell clinics selling unsupported stem cell-based treatments with little or no evidence to support them for huge amounts of money. I make no bones about it. In my estimation, every for-profit stem cell clinic is a quack clinic bilking patients with promises of the magical things they claim stem cells can do. Every. Single. One I’ve searched and searched, and I have yet to find a for-profit stem cell clinic that provides only science- and evidence-based treatments for a reasonable cost. I hope that one day I …
Accelerated approval for cancer drugs: The FDA failing to protect patients
There is a tension inherent in the drug approval process between the desire to approve new drugs rapidly in order to treat suffering people and the need to be cautious, to make sure that new drugs are safe and effective before they are approved for sale. This weighing of the risks of too-rapid approval of drugs that doesn’t work (or doesn’t work well) and might cause harm versus the harm that can be caused by delaying approval of an effective drug that might help millions longer than necessary is complex, as is balancing the benefits of rapidly approving effective drugs …