Chemotherapy is less effective than a placebo

"Placebo - a harmless pill, medicine, or procedure prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect." Google I agree to all definitions supplied by Con. Note placebos have a physiological effect, and it is implied in the above definition. Specifically "prescribed more for the psychological benefit to the patient than for any physiological effect." Google From the film Healing Cancer from Inside out 2nd edition. A placebo is generally accepted to have around 30% effectiveness. Therefore, if chemothearpy has a success rate greater than 30% it is more effective than a placebo. If chemotherapy is less effective than 30% it is less effective than a placebo. As seen in these scholarly peer reviewed sources chemotherapy has dismal effectiveness far below that of a placebo. "RESULTS: The overall contribution of curative and adjuvant cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adults was estimated to be 2.3% in Australia and 2.1% in the USA. CONCLUSION: As the 5-year relative survival rate for cancer in Australia is now over 60%, it is clear that cytotoxic chemotherapy only makes a minor contribution to cancer survival. To justify the continued funding and availability of drugs used in cytotoxic chemotherapy, a rigorous evaluation of the cost-effectiveness and impact on quality of life is urgently required." Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol). 2004 Dec;16(8):549-60.The contribution of cytotoxic chemotherapy to 5-year survival in adult malignancies. Morgan G1, Ward R, Barton M. 2.3 and 2.1% are far less than 30%. A placebo is more effective than cytotoxic chemothearpy. " The percent overall survival at 1, 2, 5, and 10 years for the early treatment group was 88%, 73%, 44%, and 18%. For the deferred therapy group the percent overall survival was 86%, 71%, 37%, and 12%." Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2002;(1):CD003506. Early versus deferred androgen suppression in the treatment of advanced prostatic cancer. Nair B1, Wilt T, MacDonald R, Rutks I. The smallest difference being 2% and the largest difference being 6% all far below the effectiveness of a placebo. My opponent may attempt to argue that mainstream medicine has been using chemotherapy for years. If it really was so ineffective why would we continue to use chemotherapy as a treatment? The answer, tradition and the funding effect. All tradition means is this is the way we always done it. Often tradition when examined from the angle, why did we do this in the first place, is arbitrary? Tradition is often arbitrary. As for the funding effect. Watch Dr. Greger's video on the funding effect. In essence the results end up being bias in favor of those funding the study. "Industrial support of biomedical research may bias scientific conclusions, as demonstrated by recent analyses of pharmaceutical studies." Relationship between Funding Source and Conclusion among Nutrition-Related Scientific Articles Lenard I Lesser, Cara B Ebbeling, Merrill Goozner, David Wypij, David S LudwigPLOS Published: January 9, 2007 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0040005 "Evidence in the scientific literature of the funding effect--the close correlation between the results of a study desired by a study's funder and the reported results of that study--suggests that the financial interest of a study's sponsors should be taken into account when considering the study's findings. Similarly, the interpretation of data by scientists with financial conflicts should be seen in this light. Manufacturing uncertainty is antithetical to the public health principle that decisions be made using the best evidence currently available." Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2006 Sep;1076:149-62. Manufactured uncertainty: protecting public health in the age of contested science and product defense. Michaels D1. Finally, doctors are the third leading cause of death. Doctors are fallible just like everyone else. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... http://nutritionfacts.org... http://journals.plos.org... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... http://nutritionfacts.org...