THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (06/21/04)

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21 Jun 2004 02:20:07 -0000

" Cancer Decisions "

THE MOSS REPORTS Newsletter (06/21/04)

 

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Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D. Weekly CancerDecisions.com

Newsletter #137 06/21/04

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THE MOSS REPORTS

 

 

Where do news outlets gather their information on the latest medical

breakthroughs? More often than not, they get it from press conferences and

publicity materials organized by the drug companies whose sponsorship has

enabled the necessary clinical trials of new drugs to take place. These

companies have an obvious vested interest in promoting their new drugs.

 

How are cancer patients to judge the media's sometimes highly selective

reporting on these issues? When statistics are skillfully used, they can make

the most modest improvement look like a giant leap forward.

 

For the past thirty years I have been studying and closely monitoring the world

of cancer treatment, sorting fact from fiction, and helping cancer patients and

their families to understand and weigh the usefulness of the treatments they

have been offered.

 

The Moss Reports represent a comprehensive library of cancer guides. In them, my

years of experience in researching cancer treatments have been distilled into a

careful assessment of the worth and effectiveness of the conventional and

alternative treatments of over two hundred different kinds of cancer.

 

If you or someone you love has received a diagnosis of cancer, a Moss Report can

provide you with the key to understanding the best that conventional and

alternative medicine have to offer. You can order a Moss Report on your specific

cancer type by calling Diane at 1-800-980-1234 (814-238-3367 from outside the

US), or by visiting our website: http://www.cancerdecisions.com

 

We look forward to helping you.

 

 

2004 ASCO MEETING, PART TWO

 

 

Last week I began a discussion of the 2004 meeting of the American Society of

Clinical Oncology (ASCO). I conclude it this week.

 

 

REMISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

 

 

On the exhibit floor, huge corporations jostled with one another for control of

the best space, each with its two or three-story high triumphalist display. More

than once, beautiful young women tried to entice me into their carpeted booths

to receive information on their company’s products. (A similar thing happened to

me in the evening as I strolled with a colleague down the French Quarter’s

raucous Bourbon Street.)

 

Overall, the mood was one of unbridled self-congratulation. One drug company

display bore the provocative title, " Remission Accomplished! "

 

Click or go to http://www.cancerdecisions.com/images/ASCO2004_3.jpg

 

This whole conference was a paean to the surging profitability of the new cancer

medicine. As Andrew Pollack of the New York Times made clear in his front page

article, the ASCO meeting has become the new trading floor of the biotech

industry. " Analysts, many of them with medical or science degrees, pack the

meeting rooms and photograph the presentation posters with digital cameras "

(Pollack 2004b).

 

According to the May 2004 issue of the magazine Hem/Onc Today, there are now

over 500 indications being explored in hematology/oncology using new drugs. In

five years, says the magazine, hem/onc’s pipeline grew by 43 percent. In other

words, business is booming.

 

Yet overall, the actual amount of serious research into CAM presented at ASCO is

so small as to be nearly non-existent. Readers can check this for themselves by

accessing the ASCO Knowledge Center search engine (accessible at

http://asco.org/ac/1,1003,_12-002577,00.asp).

 

When I entered some popular CAM-related topics in the search engine and here is

what I came up with:

 

Topic Total Abstracts

 

Antioxidants 3

Ascorbic acid 1

CAM usage 8

Cartilage (any kind) 0

Chronomodulated chemotherapy 5

Herbs 1

Homeopathy 3

Hyperbaric oxygen 0

Hyperthermia 7

Insulin potentiated chemotherapy 0

Licorice 1

Lycopene 0

Melatonin 0

Metronomic chemotherapy 5

Mistletoe 1

Photodynamic therapy 1

Polarity therapy 1

Prayer 4

Radiofrequency ablation 11

Vitamins (in general) 27

 

As you can see, many popular CAM topics – hyperbaric oxygen, lycopene,

melatonin, Coley’s toxins, the therapeutic use of cartilage extracts, etc. – are

not even mentioned among the 10,000 abstracts. And forget about the more

controversial topics of laetrile, Essiac tea, Hoxsey herbs, Rife machines, noni,

mangosteen, etc. The public can expect no help from the cancer establishment in

making difficult treatment decisions in these areas. It seems that as far as the

oncology profession is concerned, such treatments are simply beneath contempt.

 

And yet, even the numbers on the above list, scanty though they are, give a

falsely positive impression of how much work is going on. Many of these

citations actually refer to the same few papers. Plus, many of these are not

original research but once-over-quickly surveys that mention a treatment only in

passing. Thus, the number of genuine, original studies of the safety and

effectiveness of CAM treatments is very small.

 

If we put the term " complementary medicine " into the same search engine (for the

body of the text), we come up with the following numbers:

 

2004 Abstracts 9

2003 Abstracts 6

2002 Abstracts 2

2001 Abstracts 4

2000 Abstracts 0

 

So I guess we’re making some progress. In fact, if this were 30 years ago, I

would know exactly how to spin the story on behalf of the cancer establishment.

" This year saw a 50 percent increase in CAM-related papers over last year. " And

technically I would be right! At the rate of an increased three extra papers per

year, I can confidently predict that in a mere three hundred years from now CAM

will have become a significant minority interest at ASCO meetings.

 

So, let’s see. On the one hand, we know that between 60 to 90 percent of all

cancer patients are now using some form of CAM, and interest continues to grow.

One paper, reviewed by Dr. Kara Kelly, showed that 86 percent of patients

reported satisfaction with their alternative treatments. But on the other hand,

we have the painful spectacle of 25,000 oncologists with their heads in the

sand, diligently avoiding serious study of those very topics that are of the

greatest interest to their patients.

 

When the public and the Congress rise up against this intolerable situation —

and they will — short-sighted oncologists will have no one to blame but

themselves.

 

 

--Ralph W. Moss, PhD

 

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ASCO REFERENCES

 

Barclay, Laura, MD. Many children with ALL deficient in antioxidant vitamins.

Medscape Medical News, June 7, 2004. Accessed June 8, 2004 from:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/480092?src=mp

 

Borden, Bill and Pierson, Ransdell. New drugs chip away at cancer, Reuters, June

6, 2004. Accessed June 8, 2004 from:

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews & storyID=5354434§ion=n\

ews

 

Moss, R. W., PhD Antioxidants Against Cancer. Click or go to:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1881025284/cancerdecisio-20/ref=nosim/104\

-3796374-0114320

 

Pollack, Andrew. Drugs may turn cancer into manageable disease. New York Times,

June 6, 2004. Accessed June 8, 2004 from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/06/health/06CANC.html (citedas 2004a)

 

Pollack, Andrew. Annual cancer conference becomes laboratory for stocks. New

York Times, June 8, 2004. Accessed June 8, 2004 from:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/08/business/08place.html (cited as 2004b).

 

Here are some papers on the use of CAM presented at ASCO this year:

 

Comparison of complementary medicine use at genetic testing program enrollment

and one-year following results disclosure.

Meeting: 2004 ASCO Annual Meeting Abstract No: 1013 First Author: L. Digianni

 

Does the perceived risk of breast cancer recurrence and death affect the use of

complementary medicines by cancer patients?

Meeting: 2004 ASCO Annual Meeting Abstract No: 8152 First Author: S. Verma

 

Licorice in prevention of radiation induced mucositis.

Meeting: 2004 ASCO Annual Meeting Abstract No: 8268 First Author: A. A. Ismail

 

Out-of-pocket costs (OPC) and time costs (TC) for patients with stage IV

non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and their caregivers.

Meeting: 2004 ASCO Annual Meeting Abstract No: 6021 First Author: D. Romanus

 

Polarity therapy and cancer-related fatigue.

Meeting: 2004 ASCO Annual Meeting Abstract No: 8147 First Author: J. A. Rosco

 

Prevalence of CAM in a cohort of breast cancer patients and controls.

Meeting: 2004 ASCO Annual Meeting Abstract No: 8131 First Author: K. N. Anderson

 

Use of complementary/alternative medicine by Brazilian oncologists.

Meeting: 2004 ASCO Annual Meeting Abstract No: 8196 First Author: E. S. Tibana

Samano

 

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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER

 

The news and other items in this newsletter are intended for informational

purposes only. Nothing in this newsletter is intended to be a substitute for

professional medical advice.

 

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