Cancer patients victims of 'vile and cynical' exploitation by the alternative m

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" Cancer patients victims of 'vile and cynical' exploitation

by the alternative medicines industry "

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 11:27:43 -0000

 

 

Shark cartilage in the water

Personal views

Jonathan Waxman, professor of Oncology, Imperial College, London.

 

e-mail

j.waxman (at)imperial.ac.uk

 

http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/333/7578/1129

 

Prof. Jonathon Waxman - chemo advocate (2 articles):

 

Alternative medicine is defended 24 November 2006

Therapists have defended their use of complementary medicines after a

cancer expert said patients needed protection from " exploitation " .

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6179374.stm

 

 

(Can send in your comments to this article in Mail)

 

Experts call for crackdown on 'vile' alternative cancer medicine

industry by JENNY HOPE 23 Nov 2006

 

Cancer patients are victims of 'vile and cynical' exploitation by the

alternative medicines industry, claims a top specialist. Professor

Jonathan Waxman, of Imperial College London, is calling for

legislation against 'the snake oil salesmen that peddle cures and

exploit the desperate.'

 

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=4\

18217 & in_page_id=1770

 

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23375675-details/Experts+call+for+cra\

ckdown+on+'vile'+alternative+cancer+medicine+industry/article.do

 

 

 

ANH rebuttal to savage attack by UK professor:

Alliance for Natural Health

Saturday, November 25, 2006 1:30 PM

ANH rebuttal to savage attack by UK professor

 

 

 

For those of you unfortunate enough to read any articles or see any

television reports featuring Professor Jonathan Waxman, a natural

products-hating oncologist from Imperial College , London, indulge

yourself in some soothing words from ANH's Medical Director, Dr Damien

Downing.

 

On seeing Professor Waxman's `personal view' issued in the pages of

the British Medical Journal yesterday (BMJ 2006; 333:1129. For full

article refer to pg 3 of the following link

http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/november/pv1129.pdf), Damien

immediately responded via the BMJ's Rapid Response pages and posted

the following response:

 

Professor Waxman employs and perpetuates a crucial medical myth —

that, in contrast to complementary therapies, conventional therapies

are all evidence-based, on sound science. But the BMJ's website

Clinical Evidence reports that, of the 2404 treatments they have

surveyed, only 15% are rated as beneficial, while 47% are of unknown

effectiveness1. In his own speciality, indeed, chemotherapy for cancer

was found in a 2004 systematic review of studies in the USA and

Australia2 to improve overall 5-year survival chances by less than

2.5%. Interestingly, the review of dietary interventions he cites3

derived an odds ratio for the effect of a healthy diet, with or

without dietary supplements, of 0.90 — which appears to make them

probably 4 times as effective as chemotherapy. Different end-points,

granted, and a big confidence interval, but nevertheless " absence of

evidence is not evidence of absence " .

 

Talk of " vile and cynical exploitation " could with equal justification

be applied to the cancer industry, into which billions has been poured

in recent decades, to very little effect. Surely Professor Waxman

should be careful not to become, as discussed in the same issue of

BMJ, " a lapdog to drug firms " ?

 

1 http://www.clinicalevidence.com/ceweb/about/knowledge.jsp

2 Morgan G, Ward R, Barton M. The contribution of cytotoxic

chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adult malignancies. Clin Oncol (R

Coll Radiol), 2004; 16(8): 549-60.

3 Davies AA, Davey Smith G, et al.. Nutritional interventions and

outcome in patients with cancer or preinvasive lesions: systematic

review. J Natl Cancer Inst 2006; 14: 961-73.

 

It's clear from Professor Waxman's response that a threat is perceived

not only from dietary/food supplements used by millions to support

their health, he has also taken a sideswipe at organic food, produced

by a branch of agriculture supported by increasing numbers of

consumers that is threatening Big Food and agri-business. The irony,

of course, is that those most interested in reducing the burden on the

healthcare system and spending time in doctor's waiting rooms are

those who will be more likely to consume both organic foods and high

quality food supplements. Market research has demonstrated that most

users of food supplements do not use these products to counter poor

diet, but rather use them to add nutrients that they believe are

missing as a result of modern agriculture and food products.

 

The increasingly vocal hatred expressed by key opinion leaders within

the orthodox medical community has to be an expression of the threat

that they perceive from the millions of people around the world who

continue to use products derived from nature as key components of

their healthcare regime.

 

You'll appreciate that this is no time for anyone to put their head in

the sand!

 

Please feel free to forward this as widely as you can to anyone who

you feel may be interested.

 

In health,

 

The ANH Team

 

 

 

About the Alliance for Natural Health

 

The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is a Europe-wide non-profit

alliance of consumers, doctors, complementary health practitioners,

and innovative industry manufacturers and suppliers who have an

interest in food supplements and natural health. Good science and good

law underpin all of the ANH's work, and the scientific reports

produced by the ANH are endorsed by many of the world's leading

doctors and scientists working in the field of nutrition.

 

Alliance for Natural Health

 

The Atrium, Curtis Road

Dorking, Surrey RH4 1XA

United Kingdom

 

Phone:

+44-1306-646-600

Fax:

+44-1306-646-552

Email:

mel

 

www.anhcampaign.org

__________

Another excellent Rapid Response to BMJ Waxman article:

cancer research/industry

26 November 2006

 

Previous Rapid Response Top

Marlene A. Thompson,

Housewife

NG15 6DN

 

Send response to journal:

Re: cancer research/industry

 

 

 

The ICRF(Imperial Cancer Research Fund) was founded in 1902, and the

CRC(Cancer Research Campaign)in 1925, which equals a staggering 185

years research. Include other countries and this amounts to an amazing

hundreds of years research in all. In 2003 ICRF and CRC merged to

become Cancer Research UK. When their research began cancer was quite

rare. Today despite all the billions of pounds and dollars poured into

research, increased knowledge and skills, sophisticated screening and

diagnostic techniques, hundreds of cancer specialists and hospitals,

and countless new drugs, cancer has reached epidemic proportions, and

remains incurable! It's hardly surprising people are looking elswhere

considering this dismal track record. Dozens of people, including a

friend, have been successfully treated by unconventional therapies,

yet this is dismissed without any proper research into the methods. My

mother and brother (and thousands more)have died from conventional

treatments they believed would 'cure' them. It seems cancer today is

big business. I read of drug companies forcasting the billions of

pounds they will make from new cancer drugs. Cynics claim if cancer

was curable some drug companies would become bankrupt, thousands would

be jobless and the government would lose millions in revenue. As Dr

Joe Collier wrote in his book The Health Conspiracy, 'They weave

dreams that cures are within our grasp courtesy of their industry.

Reality says otherwise, but whilst the public remain hooked upon that

dream their commercial future is guaranteed " . Having researched cancer

treaments, the immune system, and prevention through a healthy diet

and avoidance of chemicals, if I had cancer I know which route I would

take, and it wouldn't be the conventional one.

 

Competing interests: None declared

 

 

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