Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery

Sometimes I hate being right

Believe it or not, there are times when I really, really wish I weren’t right. No, I’m not implying that I’m right so much of the time that I wish I were wrong more often. I’m human and therefore perfectly capable of being wrong, sometimes spectacularly so. (Of course, as we all know, that sort […]

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Surgery

On the messiness of evidence-based medicine

I’m about a week late on this one. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of my readers were wondering why I hadn’t weighed in on this story when it broke late last week. (Either that, or no one was wondering, and I’m just displaying some of my surgeon’s ego for all to see.) […]

Categories
Bioethics Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine

Alternative medicine and pediatric cancer

It appears that I’m even further behind in my reading than Abel Pharmboy, because he pointed me to a couple of articles in an issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology that I haven’t even cracked open yet. It’s probably still sitting in the pile of journals on my desk that haven’t been touched yet […]

Categories
Cancer Medicine Surgery

What is a surgical oncologist?

Although I’ve mentioned before that I am a surgical oncologist, but I recently noticed that, in nearly five months of blogging, I’ve yet to explain exactly what that is or what it means. I’ve written about all sorts of things, ranging from alternative medicine, to the evolution-creationism conflict, to the Holocaust, to even trying my […]

Categories
Bioethics Cancer Clinical trials Medicine

The ethics of clinical trials for terminally ill cancer patients

A few days ago, I posted a response to another physician who was not happy with me, no, not happy with me at all. What made him unhappy was the vociferousness with which I criticized the creeping infiltration of woo that is insinuating itself into medical school curricula and expressed dismay at the threat that […]