Cancer Myths - BM Hegde

V I E W P O I N T JIACM 2010; 11(3): 172-4
Cancer Myths
BM Hegde*
“Choose being kind over being right, and you’ll be right drawn very heavily from her article in the Huntington Post
every time.” for this article of mine, which, in short, sums up all my
articles about cancer in the last four decades!
– Richard Carlson.
The major points made out in the report (Professors Lifall
The word cancer brings on goose pimples in many of us.
Jr of Harvard and Kripke of Texas University are the Chair
We are being bombarded with so many myths in this area;
of this group) are the following:-
most of them make the gullible public believe in them
and get scared. It is not for nothing that this is done. 1. Billions of dollars have been poured into cancer
Cancer management in modern medicine is one of the research in vested institutes featuring intense and
multibillion dollar business opportunities both for the costly treatments but they failed to increase survival
medical establishment and the pharmaceutical if one factors-in reduced cancer deaths due to
companies. Open a newspaper or look at the TV, chances smoking reductions.
are that one gets to hear a celebrity – a film star, an athlete,
2. The American Cancer Society runs massive PR
or even a VIP goading you to get yourself screened for
campaigns to sell their ideas to the gullible public –
one or the other cancer. I have been consistently warning
spending on an average $17 million per year. The
the powers that be and our own medical profession that
American Cancer Society and the pharmaceutical
our linear thinking about cancer and its treatment are at
lobby were very critical of the recent PCP report,
best out of tune with reality and at worst are downright
understandably. They are surprised that the
dangerous. Who cares? Instead they have been
government sponsored panel could criticise their
consistently condemning me for writing such warnings.
business. Incidentally, why would the American
I was so gladdened yesterday, the 12th of May, 2010, when Cancer Society need advertisement in the first place?
the very prestigious American “President’s Cancer Panel”
3. The ACS overlooked numerous studies that showed
(PCP), mandated way back in 1971 to oversee cancer
a wide range of cancer causative factors, including
research and management, surprisingly came down
pesticides, toxins, metals, pollutants, food additives,
heavily on the cancer industry (medical, pharmaceutical,
industrial chemicals, endocrine disruptors and other
and chemical industries). This panel has spent millions of
carcinogens – 80,000 of them being in wide use today.
dollars over these years, but the present panel’s report for
2009 published last week is anything but a clear indication 4. “Agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, the
that the vested interests are blocking any progress in this medical industry, the military, gas and oil companies,
area as the status quo earns the above-mentioned and food producers are given carte blanche to pour
partners in the cancer industry billions of dollars profit billions of tons of chemicals and pollutants into
day after day. everyone’s food, personal care, home, baby bottles –
whatever – not to mention the public common of air,
Alison Rose Levy, a friend of mine and a great American
water and earth” (PCP).
health science journalist, advocate, and a best-selling
writer wrote a comment on the PCP report 2009 which 5. The next point is the one that I had been trying to
adds spice to the report and can never be bettered. I have make for years without success, and the PCP has been
* Padma Bhushan. Former Vice-Chancellor, Manipal University; Editor-in-Chief,

The Journal of the Science of Healing Outcomes; Chairman, State Health Society’s Expert Committee, Govt. of Bihar, Patna;
Visiting Professor of Cardiology, The Middlesex Hospital Medical School, University of London, U.K.;
Affiliate Professor of Human Health, Northern Colorado University, U.S.A.
able to drive that point home in its report very Interviews with Doctors Who are Curing Cancer – and How
effectively. We use “one size fits all” policy in treatment to Prevent Getting It in the First Place. I am not
– be it drugs, surgery, or even chemotherapy. And we authenticating the book but shall present some of the
use multiple drugs in one single patient (poly- salient features of the book here. Current treatment of
pharmacy) for which there is absolutely no scientific cancer is full of collateral damage to the human system.
basis! The drug interactions killed lots of people. This I also think it is true. It reminds me of what Charles De
is not confined to cancer therapy alone. It runs across Gaulle said about life in the company of experts. He
the whole gamut of drug therapy. thought that they confused you so much that life
becomes hell on earth! David Weatherall, a former Regius
6. “People who receive multiple scans or other tests that
Professor of Medicine at Oxford, a cancer specialist
require radiation may accumulate doses equal to or
himself, had this to say about our present cancer
exceeding that of Hiroshima atomic bomb survivors.”
management. He said that it reminded him of the way
(PCP).
our ancestors in medicine branded every single patient
The PCP report apart, there are so many areas of cancer with a red hot iron. He also felt that our future generation
management where we take the gullible public for a ride. will never forgive us for this sin!
One glaring area is that of cancer screening. People keep Other points that Suzanne makes in her book are the
swearing by it telling the public that cancer screening will following: Surgical removal of the primary helps
save millions of lives. This is far from the truth. I better metastases to grow easily. Chemotherapy is a big racket
quote the American Cancer Society that had been except in some testicular tumours, some lymphomas, and
spearheading the cancer ghost all these years. They have childhood leukaemias. Cancer death rate has not changed
now realised that there is an elephant in their room. They in the last half century. Unnecessary surgeries for breast
would want to downplay their folly, though. “So the and prostrate cancer make life miserable. Suzanne brings
American Cancer Society has finally opened its eyes, and out evidence to show that if one treats cancer as a chronic
the New York Times reports that they are crafting a new disease like diabetes, one could live a happy life. Much of
policy which indirectly admits that they were wrong all life with a cancer depends on our mind. Fear kills.
along!
If we have the method to detect a cancer on the first
“We don’t want people to panic,” Dr. Otis Brawley, the day of its birth, each human being on this planet will have
organisation’s chief medical officer, told the New York a cancer and all of them would need treatment. Cancer
Times. “But I’m admitting that American medicine has begins as a rogue cell that outlives its normal lifespan
overpromised when it comes to screening. The and escapes natural cell death, i.e., apoptosis. But the vast
advantages to screening have been exaggerated.” Dr. majority of these cells do not reach the clinical cancer
Brawley is a few years too late, though. “Cancer turned stage. So the very idea of cancer screening is unscientific,
into panic when everyone started getting screened and to say the least. In addition, time evolution in a dynamic
found out that, in many cases, they had cancer. Too often, system like the human body is non-linear, and future
those were cancers that people have always had, but predictions using a few parameters of the initial state of
didn’t know about. These cancers grow so slowly or have the organism can NEVER come true. In this context
such a slow risk of spreading that they rarely put anyone mammograms become one of the greatest myths of our
at risk.” Millions of people had to live with the trauma time. We, doctors, have been predicting the
and side-effects of cancer diagnosis which was not unpredictable future of mankind. Just like astrologers,
needed in the first place. Diagnosis has become the we are also responsible for much human misery.
biggest disease in the area of cancer. It is a shame on the
medical profession. An astrologer or a weather man can make mistakes and
still survive. We doctors predict the wrong future for man
Suzanne Somers is an American activist and a cancer and get him scared to death which, in fact, could kill him
survivor who has written a beautiful book KNOCKOUT: in the long run. This is a shame indeed. Now that the
Journal, Indian Academy of Clinical Medicine z Vol. 11, No. 3 z July-September, 2010 173
American President’s own Panel on Cancer has found large has certainly gone up, thanks to our efforts at disease
holes in their cancer management strategy, lesser mortals mongering. Let us hope that sanity will prevail, now that
in India, parading themselves as cancerologists, would the holy water has come from the horse’s mouth!
take note and tone down their rhetoric for cancer
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has
screening and managing the so-called cancers in the most
a chance to get its pants on.”
destructive way. Cancer deaths have not come down
proportionate to our claims of success, but cancer phobia – Sir Winston Churchill.
A N N O U N C E M E N T
22nd October 2010: Pre-conference Update and Workshops

23rd & 24th October 2010: Conference
Theme: Clinics Revisited
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Dr Hari Shankar Pathak Dr Dipanjan Bandyopadhyay
Organising Chairperson Organising Secretary
174 Journal, Indian Academy of Clinical Medicine z Vol. 11, No. 3 z July-September, 2010

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What are some criticisms of current cancer treatment approaches mentioned in the document?

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V I E W P O I N T JIACM 2010; 11(3): 172-4

* Padma Bhushan. Former Vice-Chancellor, Manipal University; Editor-in-Chief,

22nd October 2010: Pre-conference Update and Workshops

For registration, contact: iacmcon2010@yahoo.in, dipanjanbandyo@gmail.com

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