If current trends continue, cancer death rates will easily surpass those of cardiovascular disease within 10 years. As it stands, one out of every three women and two out of every five men will develop cancer during their lifetime. But many physicians and oncologists remain sceptical of what role, if any, alternative therapies might play in the fight. They fear alternative therapies are at best clever ways to separate desperate people and their loved ones from their money. At worst, they could be poison.
History is littered with tragic examples.
A 19th-century treatment for leprosy, for example, later proved to be largely arsenic. Nor has it helped that alleged panaceas pop up with distressing regularity, gaining a near-fanatic following before being discredited. In the '40s, injections of useless Koch Antitoxins made headlines. Krebiozen, concocted from the blood of horses inoculated with a disease-causing fungus, was in vogue in the same decade. In the '50s, it was the Hoxsey herbal cure, which actually employed one of Essiac's herbs.