Alternative cancer therapies can be fatal

Cancer patients who use alternative medicine are more likely to die than their counterparts who get treated with conventional medicine.

Scientists studied patients with cancer of the breast, prostate, lung or colon, who used complementary medicine. Scientists monitored the use of “unproven cancer treatments administered by nonmedical personnel” in addition to at least one conventional cancer therapy such as surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy or hormone therapy.

Patients who were receiving at least one form of conventional cancer treatment combined with alternative medicine were more likely to refuse at least one part of conventional treatment.

Moreover, cancer patients who rejected treatments like chemotherapy or radiation in favour of alternative medicine were two to six times more likely to die within six years of diagnosis than patients who accepted medically proven therapies.