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Bad science Cancer Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery

Clínica 0-19 and IDOI: Not making DIPG history in Monterrey (part 1 of 4)

Clínica 0-19: Where hope doesn't live

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 a complete course of treatment, and the good doctors are “too busy to do clinical trials” or even publish their survival and recurrence statistics, despite having used this protocol for 20 years. I say: If it quacks like a duck…

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture Pseudoscience

The excuses and conspiracy theories flow over Dr. Bob Sears’ being disciplined by the Medical Board of California

Dr. Bob Sears
Dr. Bob Sears

Last week, we learned that antivaccine pediatrician Dr. Bob Sears was disciplined by the Medical Board of California. It didn’t take long for him to take to Facebook to make excuses and paint himself as a martyr to the “vaccine freedom” cause or for his antivaccine admirers to come up with ridiculous conspiracy theories.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bioethics Medicine Politics Quackery

Antivaccine pediatrician Dr. Bob Sears finally faces discipline from the Medical Board of California

Dr. Bob Sears
Dr. Bob Sears in his element, publicizing antivaccine nonsense.

Antivaccine pediatrician Dr. Bob Sears has been disciplined by the Medical Board of California, complete with a requirement for medical educations, ethics courses, and a practice monitor to make sure he doesn’t practice outside the standard of care. I wonder how his patients’ parents will like him now that he has to administer vaccines according to the CDC schedule.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Bad science Politics

The conspiracy theory surrounding Italian antivaccine scientist Stefano Montanari deepens

Stefano Montanari and Antonietta Gatti
Stefano Montanari and Antonietta Gatti

Stefano Montanari and Antonietta Gatti are a husband-wife duo of Italian antivaccine “scientists” who like to use the electron microscope to find particulates in vaccines and try to scare people over them. Recently, Montanari was punched by an unknown assailant after having addressed the fascist group Casa Pound. Naturally, he thinks it’s part of a government conspiracy to silence him.

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Integrative medicine Medicine Quackery

ASCO: Endorsing the Society for Integrative Oncology’s “integration” of quackery into oncology

Quack attack: ASCO and Society for Integrative Oncology

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 insurance coverage. The advance of quackademic medicine in oncology continues apace.