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Health Education · Lifestyle Medicine

Cancer and Alternative Treatments

Written by Dr. Kate McCann
12th August 2024
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There is a simply wonderful paper out in the British Journal of Cancer last week looking at how alternative clinics preying on patients with cancer, often using Google and social media. In a week where we are celebrating the Irish on the global stage, it’s worth noting there is an excellent commentary by Cork-based Oncology group, led by Dr. Seamus O’Reilly, Consultant Oncologist.

 

The short version? For many reasons, patient with cancer can often be vulnerable to those selling them fake cures or treatments, and had a real potential to harm.

What is the solution? If you are exploring cancer treatments outside of what your oncology team has recommended, talk it over with them. They can help guide you, for example, on how to check if someone advertising an expensive clinical trial is the real deal — especially important as approved and ethical clinical trials usually do not charge patients.

There is no paywall from Nature on these papers (they are free to read and share):

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44276-024-00075-5

https://www.nature.com/articles/s44276-024-00071-9#Sec3

For an accessible audio of my breakdown of the important parts of the paper in Plain English:  

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