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Study alternative cancer medicine requires double risk of death
An American study concludes that cancer patients treated with alternative care die on average twice as often at each marked time point in the next few years as with conventional treatment. In breast or colon cancer, the death rate of the "alternative" treated is even higher.
Conventional therapy
Conventional therapy would be chemotherapy, radiation, surgery, or hormone therapy, depending on the course and stage of the cancer.
Usually, the tumors form colon cancer in the colon and only very rarely is the small intestine affected. The death rate for alternative therapies is much higher than for conventional treatments (Image: Henrie / fotolia.com) Alternative medicine
There are various methods under alternative medicine that are often directed against established medicine and for which there is usually no proof of effect. These include, for example, homeopathy, acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine or even apricot therapy, Reiki, help by angels or ghosts.
Longer life with conventional therapies
A study by Yale University in New Haven Connecticut has now shown that those who undergo conventional therapy are likely to live longer than patients who rely on alternative treatments.
Where was the study published??
Scientists Skyler B. Johnson, Henry S. Park, Cary P. Gross, James B. Yu published their study "Use of Alternative Medicine for Cancer and Its Impact on Survival" in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in August 2017, can be read at https://news.yale.edu/2017/08/10/using-only-alternative-medicine-cancer-linked-lower-survival-rate
How did the researchers proceed??
Scientists searched the US Cancer Registry for patients with colon, breast, prostate or lung cancer. These are the most common cancers. Then they looked at those who underwent "untreated cancer therapy performed by non-medical personnel".
comparison
They found 281 cases and compared them to patients who had a conventional therapy with a largely identical diagnosis and comparable conditions such as age, gender or income.
Who was not rated?
The investigation revealed that patients whose cancer had already metastasized at the beginning of treatment, were in the final stages or whose data remained unclear.
Unique results
The results were clear. Norbert Aust om Information Network Homeopathy writes: "At any point in time, the number of deaths associated with alternative therapy is about twice that of conventionally treated people. After seven years, about half of the patients had died with alternative therapy, and only a good quarter under conventional therapy. "
For certain cancers, the differences are enormous
In breast cancer, the risk of death from treatment with alternative medicine was five times that of colon cancer and four times that of conventional methods.
Lung and colorectal cancer
41 percent of lung cancer patients survived the next five years with conventional therapies; in patients using alternative medicine, it was 20%. Colon cancer patients survived the first 5 years with conventional methods to 79%, with alternative medicine only to 33%.
To early death
Norbert Aust concludes: "Reliance on alternative medicine has caused too early death in 67 out of 280 people! It did not necessarily negatively affect the course of the disease - but because the patient was led to believe that there was an effective alternative medicine, they did not perceive the apparently more effective conventional treatment. "
Next Thought
According to Norbert Aust, translating into the future would mean that 13 years after the start of therapy, all patients who preferred alternative medicine would have died, while half of those treated conventionally would be alive.
Different methods?
Although the scientists did not differentiate between the individual alternative therapies, these procedures all resembled one another in that no evidence of efficacy was available.
What follows?
Norbert Aust calls as a rule of thumb: "Anyone who relies on alternative medicine as a cancer patient has less chance of surviving the next five years. And these chances are 2.5 times lower. "(Dr. Utz Anhalt)