Like so many new drug treatments, it sounded promising but proved to be worthless or harmful when tested. The truth is that we don't know that it is a life-saving drug until it is tested. Even if proven life-saving, we can't truly hope to save lives until we have done enough testing to know how to use it properly. The history of modern drug treatment includes many cases of valuable drugs that proved ineffective or harmful because they were used in the wrong patients, or at the wrong time in the progression of a disease. Until it is tested, and we know how to use it, a drug cannot properly considered a life-saving treatment.
Alternative medicines pose special problems that deserve attention.
They are falling between the cracks of the system we have devised to search for new medicines. Large drug companies expect to invest millions of dollars in elaborate drug testing. Smaller companies, like those who produce alternative medicines, don't have the resources to do that testing, so their drugs often lack the safety factor that is expected by Americans. He describes the role that alternative medicine should play in the overall treatment of patients, in this case, cancer patients. When it comes to medical emergencies, contemporary conventional medicine is magnificent.