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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Homeopathy Medicine Quackery Science Skepticism/critical thinking

Cassandra Callender, the teen who refused chemotherapy, speaks out to a quack

A recurring topic on this blog involves my discussion of stories about children with cancer whose parents refuse chemotherapy, thus endangering the children’s lives. These stories usually take this general form: The child is diagnosed with a deadly, but treatable cancer that has a high probability of cure with proper chemotherapy. The child receives the […]

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Medicine

Another teen refusing chemotherapy, another court ruling

You wanted it. You’ve been pestering me about it for days now. So now you’ve got it. You might be surprised at what I say about it though. I realize that I’ve written time and time again about children with cancer who refuse chemotherapy in favor of quackery. It’s been one of the recurring story […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

The long, strange case of Abraham Cherrix continues

Discussing Stanislaw Burzynski’s abuse of science while contemplating how even his success stories really aren’t yesterday reminded me of a topic that I discussed rather extensively not long after I moved my blog over to ScienceBlogs and have covered sporadically since then. I’m referring to the case of Abraham Cherrix. Cherrix, for those who haven’t […]

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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Quackery Religion Skepticism/critical thinking

Daniel Hauser and his rejection of chemotherapy: Is religion the driving force or just a convenient excuse?

Yesterday, I wrote about Daniel Hauser, a 13-year-old boy with Hodgkin’s lymphoma who, with the support of his parents, has refused conventional therapy for his cancer, which would normally consist of chemotherapy and radiation. Given his stage and type of tumor, he could normally expect at least an 85% chance of surviving and perhaps even […]