Alternative cancer treatment is an alternative or complementary treatment for cancer that has not yet been approved by a government agency responsible for the regulation of therapeutic goods. They include diet and exercise, chemicals, herbs, devices, and manual procedures. Treatment is not supported by evidence, either because no proper testing has been performed, or because the test does not show statistically significant effectiveness. There are concerns about the security of some of them. Some of the treatments that have been proposed in the past have been found in clinical trials to be either useless or insecure. Some of these outdated or unproven treatments continue to be promoted, sold, and used. Promoting or marketing such care is illegal in most developed countries including the United States and the European Union.
Differences are usually made between complementary treatments that do not interfere with conventional medical treatments, and alternative treatments that can replace conventional treatments. Alternative cancer treatments are usually contrasted with experimental cancer treatments - which are the treatments for ongoing experimental testing - and with complementary treatments, which are non-invasive practices used in conjunction with other treatments. All approved chemotherapy cancer treatments are considered experimental cancer treatments before their safety tests and efficacy are completed.
Since the 1940s, medical science has developed chemotherapy, radiation therapy, adjuvant therapy and newer targeted therapies, and excellent surgical techniques to remove cancer. Prior to the development of modern evidence-based care, 90% of cancer patients died within five years. With modern mainstream treatments, only 34% of cancer patients die within five years. However, while the main form of cancer treatment generally extends age or permanently cures cancer, most treatments also have side effects ranging from unpleasant to fatal, such as pain, blood clotting, fatigue, and infection. Side effects and lack of assurance that treatment will succeed create a fascination for alternative treatments for cancer, which are intended to cause fewer side effects or to increase survival rates despite evidence showing a 2-5 fold increase in deaths with alternative medicines.
Alternative cancer treatments are usually not well done, well-designed clinical trials, or the results have not been published due to publication bias (refusal to publish treatment outcomes outside of the journal's focus area, guidelines or approach). Among the published, the method is often bad. A systematic review of 214 articles covering 198 clinical trials of alternative cancer treatments concluded that virtually no studies were conducted in doses, which were necessary to ensure that patients were given a number of useful treatments. This kind of treatment arises and vanishes frequently, and has throughout history.
Video Alternative cancer treatments
Terminology
Complementary and alternative cancer treatments are often grouped together, in part because of the adoption of the phrase "complementary and alternative medicine" by the United States Congress. However, according to Barrie R. Cassileth, in cancer treatment the difference between complementary and alternative therapies is "important".
Complementary care is used in conjunction with proven primary care. They tend to be pleasurable for the patient, not involving substances with pharmacological effects, are cheap, and are meant to treat side effects rather than killing cancer cells. Medical massage and self-hypnosis to treat pain are examples of complementary treatments.
About half the practitioners who provide complementary treatments are doctors, although they tend to be generalists rather than oncologists. As many as 60% of American doctors have referred their patients to complementary practitioners for several purposes.
Alternative treatments, by contrast, are used instead of primary care. The most popular alternative cancer therapies include strict diet, mind-body intervention, bioelectromagnetics, nutritional supplements, and herbs. The popularity and prevalence of different treatments vary greatly by region. While conventional doctors should always be wary of any complementary treatments used by patients, many doctors in the UK are at least tolerant of their use, and some may recommend them.
Maps Alternative cancer treatments
Extensive use
Survey data on how many cancer patients using alternative or complementary therapies varies from country to country and from region to region. A 2000 study published by the European Cancer Journal evaluated a sample of 1023 women from the British cancer registry who suffered from breast cancer and found that 22.4% had consulted with complementary therapy practitioners in the previous twelve months.. The study concludes that patients have spent thousands of pounds on the action and the use of "complementary therapy practitioners after diagnosis is a significant and possibly growing phenomenon".
In Australia, one study reported that 46% of children with cancer had been treated with at least one non-traditional therapy. Furthermore, 40% of all ages receiving palliative care have tried at least one such therapy. Some of the most popular alternative cancer treatments are found as diet therapy, antioxidants, high-dose vitamins, and herbal therapies.
The use of unconventional cancer treatments in the United States has been influenced by the US Federal Government's National Government for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), originally known as the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM), established in 1992 as the National Institute of Health (NIH) supplemented by US Congress. More than thirty American medical schools have offered general courses in alternative medicine, including Georgetown, Columbia, and Harvard university systems, among others.
People who choose alternative care
People who choose alternative medicine tend to believe that evidence-based drugs are highly invasive or ineffective, while still believing that their own health can be improved. They are loyal to their alternative health care providers and believe that "treatment should concentrate on the whole person".
Cancer patients who choose alternative treatments than conventional treatments believe they are less likely to die than patients who only choose conventional treatments. They feel more control over their fate, and report less anxiety and depression. They are more likely to engage in the search for benefits, which is a psychological process to adapt to a traumatic situation and decide that the trauma is valuable, usually due to personal and spiritual growth felt during the crisis.
However, patients who use alternative medicine have a worse survival time, even after controlling the type and stage of the disease. The reasons why patients who use alternative medicine die sooner may be because patients who accurately feel that they are likely to survive are not trying unproven treatment, and patients who accurately feel that they are unlikely to survive are interested in unproven treatment. Among patients who believe their condition can not be treated with evidence-based medicine, "desperation pushes them into anyone's hands with promise and a smile." Fraudsters have long exploited patients who were deemed to be less eligible to extract payments for ineffective and even harmful treatments.
In a survey of American cancer patients, Baby Boomer is more likely to support complementary and alternative treatments than those of older generations. White, college, and college-educated patients diagnosed more than a year ago were more likely than others to report a good impression of at least some complementary and alternative benefits.
Questionable and ineffective treatment
Many therapies have been (and continue) promoted to treat or prevent cancer in humans but have no effective scientific and medical evidence. In many cases, there is good scientific evidence that suspected treatments are not working. Unlike received cancer treatments, unproven and unproven treatments are generally ignored or avoided by the medical community, and are often pseudoscientific.
Nonetheless, many of these therapies continue to be promoted as effective, especially by the promoters of alternative medicine. Scientists regard this practice as shamanism, and some of those involved have been investigated and prosecuted by public health regulators such as the US Federal Trade Commission, the Mexican Health Secretariat, and the Canada Competition Bureau. In the UK, the Cancer Act makes the promotion of unlawful cancer treatment a crime.
Research area
Custom methods
- Curcumin
- Deoxycholic acid
- Dichloroacetic acid
- HuaChanSu, traditional Chinese medicine taken from Bufo toad leather
- Medical marijuana (especially for "Appetite Stimulation" and "Analgesia")
- Melittin (via "Nanobees")
- Milk thistle
- Proton therapy
- Selenium (Selenomethionine and Se -methylselenocysteine)
Relieves pain
Most studies of complementary and alternative medicine in the treatment of low quality cancer pain in terms of scientific evidence. Massage therapy studies have produced mixed results, but overall show some temporary benefits to reduce pain, anxiety, and depression and very low risk of harm, unless patients are at risk for bleeding disorders. There is weak evidence for the simple benefits of hypnosis, supportive psychotherapy and cognitive therapy. The results of Reiki and touch therapy can not be inferred. The most studied treatment, acupuncture, showed no benefit as an additional analgesic to cancer pain. The evidence for music therapy is vague, and some herbal interventions such as PC-SPES, mistletoe, and saw palmetto are known to be toxic to some cancer patients. The most promising evidence, though still weak, is for mind-body interventions such as biofeedback and relaxation techniques.
Examples of complementary therapies
As stated in the scientific literature, the steps listed below are defined as 'complementary' as they are applied in conjunction with major anti-cancer measures such as chemotherapy, in contrast to ineffective therapies that are viewed as 'alternatives' as they are offered in lieu of for the main size.
- Acupuncture can help cope with nausea but does not treat illness.
- Psychotherapy can reduce anxiety and improve quality of life and make it possible to improve the patient's mood.
- Massage therapy can temporarily reduce pain.
- There is no evidence that marijuana has a beneficial effect in preventing or treating cancer in humans.
- Hypnosis and meditation can improve the quality of life of cancer patients.
- Music therapy relieves cancer-related symptoms by helping mood disorders.
Alternative theories about cancer
Some alternative cancer treatments are based on unproven or unproven theories about how cancer is started or maintained in the body. Some common concepts are:
- The mind-body connection: This idea says that cancer is formed because, or it can be controlled through, the mental and emotional state of a person. The treatment based on this idea is mind-body intervention. Proponents say that cancer is formed because the person is unhappy or stressed, or that a positive attitude can cure cancer after it is formed. The typical claim is that stress, anger, fear, or sadness suppress the immune system, whereas love, forgiveness, confidence, and happiness cause the immune system to increase, and that this enhanced immune system will destroy cancer. This belief that generally increases the activity of the immune system will kill cancer cells that are not supported by scientific research. In fact, many cancers require the support of the active immune system (mainly through inflammation) to establish the tumor micro tumor needed for the tumor to grow.
- The theory of cancer toxin: In this idea, the body's metabolic processes are overwhelmed by the normal daily by-products. This byproduct, called "poison", is said to accumulate in the cells and cause cancer and other diseases through a process sometimes called autioxia or autotoxemia . Treatment following this approach is usually intended for detoxification or body cleansing, such as enemas.
- Low activity by the immune system: This claim confirms that if only the immune system is strong enough, it will kill the "attack" or "foreign" cancer. Unfortunately, most cancer cells maintain normal cellular characteristics, making it appear in the immune system to become a normal part of the body. Cancerous tumors also actively induce immune tolerance, which prevents the immune system from attacking them.
- Epigenetic dysregulation. This claim uses research into the epigenetic mechanism to understand how mutations in the cell's epigenetic machinery would alter the pattern of histone acetylation to create epigenetic cancer. DNA damage appears to be a major cause of cancer. If DNA repair is deficient, DNA damage tends to accumulate. Such excessive DNA damage may increase mutational errors during DNA replication because of the error-prone transcription synthesis. Excess DNA damage can also increase epigenetic changes due to errors during DNA repair. Such mutations and epigenetic changes can cause cancer (see malignant neoplasm).
Regulatory action
Government agencies around the world routinely investigate alternative cancer treatments that are claimed in an effort to protect their citizens from fraud and abuse.
In 2008, the United States Federal Trade Commission acted against companies that made unsupported claims that their products, some of which include toxic chemicals, can cure cancer. Targets include Omega Supply, Native Essence Herb Company, Daniel Chapter One, Gemtronics, Inc., Herbs for Cancer, Nu-Gen Nutrition, Inc., Westberry Enterprises, Inc., All Natural Cancer Therapy Jim Clark, Bioque Technologies, Inc., Cleansing Time Pro, and Premium-essiac-tea-4less.
See also
- Diet and cancer
- Clinical trials
- The placebo effect
- Pseudosains
- List of topics that are characterized as pseudoscience
References
External links
- Cure-ious? Ask. If you or someone you care about is suffering from cancer, the last thing you need is fraud from the US Federal Trade Commission
- 187 Fraud Cures Cancer from the US Food and Drug Administration
- Herbal, Botanical & amp; See other products by Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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