Major cancer journal publishes positive survey on homeopathic cancer patients!

[Dana Ullman, MPH]

Friends,

A major cancer journal (the official journal of the European Society for Medical Oncology!) says that patients with cancer who are treated with homeopathic medicines have a similar "quality of life" and other variables, when compared with patients who utilize conventional cancer care. Wow!
Ann Oncol. 2010 May;21(5):1094-9. Epub 2009 Oct 25.
Characteristics of cancer patients using homeopathy compared with those in conventional care: a cross-sectional study.
Guethlin C , Walach H , Naumann J , Bartsch HH , Rostock M .

Institute for General Practice, Johann-Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany. guethlin@allgemeinmedizin.uni-frankfurt.de
Abstract
BACKGROUND: There are only few studies on cancer patients who are treated in complementary and alternative medicine clinics and comparing them with patients in conventional care. We will present the comparison of characteristics of two patient cohorts: one was treated in a homeopathic cancer care clinic and one was treated in a conventional oncology care (CC) outpatient clinic. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Six-hundred and forty-seven patients were included in this cross-sectional cohort study and had to fill in questionnaires [health-related quality of life (QoL) (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General Scale), depression and anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), fatigue (Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory) and expectancies toward treatment]. Clinical data were extracted from medical records. This study presents the comparison of both cohorts. RESULTS: Patients in the homeopathy cohort are younger, better educated and more often employed than patients in the CC cohort. The most pronounced differences indicate longer disease histories and different diagnostic and clinical pretreatment variables. Despite the clinical differences, QoL as well as anxiety, depression and fatigue was similar in both the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Homeopathic treatment is sought by cancer patients at a different phase during the course of the disease, which has particular implications for research. However, expectancies toward the benefit of the treatment as well as QoL data are similar.

PMID: 19858085 [PubMed - in process]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entre ... h=19858085
Dana Ullman, MPH
Homeopathic Educational Services
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Berkeley, CA. 94704
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[Liz Brynin]

Sorry - but how is this positive? A similar quality of life? Then that means sh..ty , doesn't it? After all, who could put chemo and 'quality of life' in the same positive sentence?
Liz

[Tanya Marquette]

Good question. They need to be asked what their standards for quality of life are.
If they mean that the person can function well and independently, then it can be seen as
a positive statement.
But there are many online sites from India that talk of their cancer treatments and the good
results they are getting. Perhaps we should do a bit of searching to see what studies we
can dig up.
tanya

[Liz Brynin]

Do you know something, Tanya? I wonder whether this isn't a cruel trick on homeopaths - making them think that at last there is something positive about homeopathy.
LOL!!! When you actually read the report results (as summarised below - I haven't bothered to read the report itself) it seems that the two groups display identical problems or outcomes i.e. same rates of depression, fatigue etc. and....most tellingly....no difference in final outcomes. So has the homeopathy helped? in the only way that cancer pateints care - i.e. a cure? No -- of course not! Why? because there's nothing in it!! It's placebo! So someone being treated with chemo or with homeopathy will have the same belief that they are in good hands - and that's all. No further, real benefit to homeopathy.
Or am I reading this incorrectly?
Liz

[Jean Doherty]

At least is being considered which I think a start, Jean

[Tanya Marquette]

It would have been too much for them to say that homeopathy works better for cancer. Afterall, cancer
is one of those diseases that they think only the medical industry can deal with.
If this woman wrote a very strong article, it would not have seen the light of day

[Shannon Nelson]

Are these folks getting chemo *and* homeopathy, or homeopathy instead?
Must be the former; otherwise the point would seem to be that chemo is also placebo, which I doubt is the message...

[Michael]

http://www.cam-cancer.org/About-CAM-Can ... witzerland

When you open this link, you will see the info about one of the authors of the article, he works in the Institute of complementary medicine in Switzerland. There are really clinics there where cancer patients are treated with homeopathy and naturopathy.
http://www.clinicasantacroce.ch/Clinica ... linik.html

this is a famous clinic of Dr Spinedi.
Michael
--- On Sun, 18/7/10, Shannon Nelson wrote:

[Michael]

http://www.cam-cancer.org/CAM-Summaries ... -in-cancer

check this also
--- On Sun, 18/7/10, Shannon Nelson wrote: