Patients almost universally say that they have more energy, they sleep better, their appetite is improved. But few American oncologists have embraced mistletoe, saying the European research on it has been flawed. The studies so far do not convince me that Iscador is a useful agent for the treatment of cancer, said Dr. Larry Norton, incoming president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He said large-scale, controlled, randomized trials on the substance need to be done in order to properly evaluate its benefits. Natural products are not necessarily safe by definition, Norton added.
Strychnine is a natural product.
Hemlock is a natural product. Tobacco is a natural product. Eggermont, whose study was a randomized trial, agreed. What we should learn from this observation is that all types of medicine, all types of agents, should be subjected to the same rules of evidence-based medicine. And then we can say whether an agent is actually beneficial, whether it's neutral or whether it's harmful.