Thomas S. May, M.A.

Medical Writer

Why Do People Trust Unproven Cancer Treatments?

Thomas S. May, Medical Writer

Introduction

Tyrell Dueck was a soft-spoken Canadian teenager who noticed a lump on his right leg, just below the knee, shortly after his 13th birthday. A few days later, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer.

Doctors at his local hospital told his family that he needed urgent, aggressive treatment: His leg would have to be amputated below the knee and chemotherapy should also be started as soon as possible. This would give him a 65% chance at survival--otherwise he would probably die within a few months.

After a few weeks at the clinic, he was discharged and assured by staff that the tumor in his leg was shrinking.

But Tyrell's parents refused the medical treatment recommended by the hospital. They decided, instead, to rely on prayer and various alternative therapies offered at a clinic in Mexico. He was given laetrile (a drug made from apricot pits) and a mixture of vitamins at the Tijuana clinic, at a cost of about $4,000 per week.

After a few weeks at the clinic, he was discharged and assured by staff that the tumor in his leg was shrinking and that his cancer had not spread. Two months later, however, the 13-year-old boy was dead of cancer, which had spread to his lungs and other organs.

Dueck's family is just one of countless other people who put their faith in unproven or clearly ineffective alternative treatments and refuse generally accepted, standard cancer therapies recommended by most doctors. In the United States, nearly half of the adult population used some type of alternative care in the past year, according to recent surveys. But why do so many people trust these unproven remedies more than the scientifically tested and medically accepted conventional treatments?

"When people become sick, any promise of a cure is especially beguiling," says Barry Beyerstein, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at Simon Fraser University's Brain Behavior Laboratory. "As a result, common sense and the willingness to demand evidence are easily supplanted by false hope."

In an article published in the journal Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine (Vol. 3, no. 2), Beyerstein lists a number of specific reasons that may account for the popularity of unproven therapies:

The low level of scientific literacy among the general public.

An increase in anti-scientific attitudes riding on the coattails of New-Age mysticism.

Vigorous marketing of extravagant claims by the alternative medical community and inadequate media scrutiny of such claims.

Widespread anti-doctor sentiment, which is part of an increasing mistrust of traditional authority figures.

The perceived safety of alternative therapies.

Ethnicity Affects Choice

Studies show that a large percentage of cancer patients try at least one type of unorthodox, alternative therapy, in addition to (or instead of) mainstream, conventional treatment. The percentage of patients using alternative treatments does not seem to vary across races, but interestingly, people of certain ethnic backgrounds do tend to favor different types of therapies.

For example, a recent survey found that African-American women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer most often used spiritual healing, while those of Chinese descent preferred to use herbal remedies. Latino women with breast cancer used dietary methods and spiritual healing techniques, and those with a European background tended to use dietary methods and various physical therapies, like massage or acupuncture.

"Our data provide no explanation of clear reasons for these ethnic differences," the authors of the study write. Nevertheless, they do offer some possible explanations: "The fact that Chinese are more likely to use herbal therapies than whites or blacks may be due to a more prevalent use of herbal therapies by Chinese in general, such as in traditional Chinese medicine." Similarly, "the importance of spirituality and religious faith among blacks" can probably explain the popularity of spiritual healing in African-American women, the researchers suggest.

Doctors Don't Know

In another study, more than 200 patients suffering from cancer of the head and neck were asked about their use of alternative therapies. Close to 40% of the interviewed patients said they had used at least one type of non-conventional treatment. Fifty-eight percent of those who had turned to alternative medicine used it either as an anticancer treatment or as a way to provide relief from symptoms.

Most of the patients expressed their belief that physicians are "the most knowledgeable sources of information" about alternative medicine.

Most of the patients expressed their belief that physicians are "the most knowledgeable sources of information" about alternative medicine. "This finding is in stark contrast to our belief that most clinicians, even oncologists, know little about alternative therapies' safety, efficacy, or current developments," the authors of the study write.

Despite their belief that doctors are the best sources for this type of information, most patients learned about alternative therapies from family and friends. Moreover, a majority of cancer patients did not tell their doctors about their use of alternative treatments, the survey found.

The authors of the study note that "alternative medicine has been used among patients with cancer throughout every era. However, these methods are now being met with unprecedented support from patients, the popular press, government, insurance agencies, and even conventional medical establishments." They add that "the use of alternative medicine is influenced by societal views of power of the individual, a need to understand the diseases that ail us, a general tendency to dismiss research data in favor of personal experience, and public frustration with the failure of modern medicine to significantly improve cure rates."

Why Ineffective Treatments Often Seem To Work

In his article "Social and Judgmental Biases that Make Inert Treatments Seem to Work," Beyerstein lists a number of reasons why ineffective treatments may appear to work. These include the following:

The disease may have run its natural course.

Many diseases respond well to the "the tincture of time"; in other words, they are self-limiting. Provided that the condition is not chronic or fatal, the body's own recuperative processes will restore the sufferer to health.

Many disease are cyclical.

Many illnesses have "ups and downs." Not surprisingly, sufferers tend to seek therapy during the downturn of any given cycle. In this way, a bogus treatment will have repeated opportunities to coincide with upturns that would have happened anyway.

Spontaneous remission.

Any anecdotally reported cure could have been due to a rare but possible "spontaneous remission." Even with certain cancers that are nearly always lethal, tumors occasionally disappear without further treatment.

The placebo effect.

A major reason bogus remedies are credited with subjective, and occasionally objective, improvements is the ubiquitous placebo effect. Some placebo responses produce actual changes in physical symptoms; others are subjective changes that make patients feel better in the absence of measurable changes in their underlying pathology. In either case, patients given biologically useless treatments can often experience measurable relief, due to a combination of suggestion, belief, and expectancy.

Misdiagnosis (by self or physician).

Many people can be induced to think they suffer from diseases they do not have. When these healthy people receive the oddly unwelcome news from orthodox physicians that they have no organic signs of disease, they often gravitate to alternative practitioners who can always find some kind of "energy imbalance," nutritional deficit, or dubious "sensitivity" to treat. If "recovery" follows, another convert is born.

Thomas S. May is a freelance medical writer.

Reviewer: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Reviewed for medical accuracy by physicians at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), Harvard Medical School. BIDMC does not endorse any products or services advertised on this Web site.

Reprinted from Medscape Health for Consumers.

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