Part II
Do We Need A new Approach to Cancer?
John Cairns, professor of microbiology at Harvard University,
published a devastating 1985 critique in Scientific American. "Aside from
certain rare cancers, it is not possible to detect any sudden changes in the
death rates for any of the major cancers that could be credited to chemotherapy.
Whether any of the common cancers can be cured by chemotherapy has yet to be
established."
In fact, chemotherapy is curative in very few cancers --
testicular, hodgkins, choriocarcinoma, childhood leukemia. In most common solid
tumors -- lung, colon, breast, etc. -- chemotherapy is NOT curative.
In an article entitled "Chemotherapy: Snake-Oil
Remedy?" that appeared in the Los Angeles Times of 1/9/87, Dr. Martin F.
Shapiro explained that while "some oncologists inform their patients of the
lack of evidence that treatments work...others may well be misled by scientific
papers that express unwarranted optimism about chemotherapy. Still others
respond to an economic incentive. Physicians can earn much more money running
active chemotherapy practices than they can providing solace and relief...to
dying patients and their families."
Dr. Shapiro is hardly alone. Alan C. Nixon, PhD, Past
President of the American Chemical Society wrote that "As a chemist trained
to interpret data, it is incomprehensible to me that physicians can ignore the
clear evidence that chemotherapy does much, much more harm than good."
In 1986, McGill Cancer Center scientists sent a questionnaire
to 118 doctors who treated non-small-cell lung cancer. More than 3/4 of them
recruited patients and carried out trials of toxic drugs for lung cancer. They
were asked to imagine that they themselves had cancer, and were asked which of
six current trials they themselves would choose. 64 of the 79 respondents would
not consent to be in a trial containing cisplatin, a common chemotherapy drug.
Fifty eight found all the trials unacceptable. Their reason? The ineffectiveness
of chemotherapy and its unacceptable degree of toxicity.
Famed German biostatistician Ulrich Abel PhD also found in a
similar 1989 study that "the personal views of many oncologists seem to be
in striking contrast to communications intended for the public."
Breast cancer activist Rose Kushner wrote that by 1981
"indiscriminate, automatic adjuvant chemotherapy was replacing the Halsted
radical mastectomy as therapeutic overkill in the United States." Thomas
Nealon MD, Professor of Surgery at NYU School of Medicine, concluded in 1990
that "The treatment of this tumor now has slipped from too much surgery to
too much adjuvant therapy."
Why so much use of chemotherapy if it does so little good?
Well for one thing, drug companies provide huge economic incentives. In 1990,
$3.53 billion was spent on chemotherapy. By 1994 that figure had more than
doubled to $7.51 billion. This relentless increase in chemo use was accompanied
by a relentless increase in cancer deaths.
Oncologist Albert Braverman MD wrote in 1991 that "no
disseminated neoplasm (cancer) incurable in 1975 is curable today...Many medical
oncologists recommend chemotherapy for virtually any tumor, with a hopefulness
undiscouraged by almost invariable failure."
Why the growth in chemotherapy in the face of such failure? A
look at the financial interrelationships between a large cancer center such as
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the companies that make billions
selling chemo drugs is revealing. James Robinson III, Chairman of the MSKCC
Board of Overseers and Managers, is a director of Bristol-Myers Squibb, the
world's largest producer of chemotherapy drugs. Richard Gelb, Vice-Chairman of
the MSKCC board is Bristol-Myers Chairman of the Board. Richard Furlaud, another
MSKCC board member, recently retired as Bristol Myers' president. Paul Marks MD,
MSKCC's President and CEO, is a director of Pfizer.
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Maria Hernandez
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