"Losing the War Against Cancer! Who is responsible?
These are not my data, they are of John Bailar, ex National Cancer Institute, the leading cancer epidemiologist and statistician in the US based on international data all of which were presented at the New York of Sciences Academy meeting. So to challenge these data is somewhat like King Canute trying to stop the tide.
Having said that the cancer rate is increasing it must be said that our ability to treat and cure cancer has not materially improved for decades. There have been remarkable successes when it comes to some of the rare cancers, childhood cancers, some lymphomas, testicular cancer, some of these successes although extremely laudable may be more apparent that real. For instance, if you follow up children who have been treated successfully for acute leukaemia with anti-metabolites, 6-mercaptopurine among other things, these children have a 10-20 fold greater chance of getting subsequent cancers from the actual treatment itself. In addition there's a wide range of other delayed toxic effects. But the real point is this, that when you examine the overwhelming majority of cancers for which chemotherapy is used, namely epithelial cancers, or cancers of epithelial organs such as breast, gut etc, once they are past the localised stage there is no evidence whatever that chemotherapy is of any value whatever, in spite of contrary assertions by the cancer establishment, New Zealand, GB and in the USA. There are some data showing that people who leave the cancer untreated do better because the treatment in many instances is so toxic, that the treatment not only damages the quality of life but also shortens life. And this contrasts remarkably with the series of hyper-optimistic claims which you see periodically. We see these, curiously, in the United States in March. In the last week in March there's the announcement of the latest cancer cure and the Madison Ave. advertising drums go into high gear, the American Cancer Society puts out major PR. It so happens that this "March Phenomenon" is associated with two other sets of events. One is the annual fund raising drive of the American Cancer Society which begins on April 1st, and the other is the Annual Science writers seminar held at a plush resort. Science writers from all major newspapers are invited down, all expenses paid, wined and dined, meeting with top cancer researchers, I've been to them in the past, and they're really quite remarkable phenomena. And they're handed out amongst other things sheets announcing the latest cancer cure and they're promptly reported in the latest newspaper. But the basis for these claims usually is from what is known as initial tumour response, a shrinkage of the tumour, and if you have 75% shrinkage in size of the tumour this is hailed as the latest cure.
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