New German Evidence on Alternative Medicine

Cancer patients use alternative medicines. We all know that. One 2009 study said that 60% of American patients seek out various non-Western therapies, including extra vitamin supplements. In 2010 a review piece said this extended to children as well, although it reached the notably unhelpful conclusion that somewhere between 6% and 91% of kids with cancer patients take complementary or alternative medicine.

Which is why a new German study in Neurology isn't nearly as Earth-shattering as the media seems to think, although it is a useful "me, too" piece. That study says that 40% of German patients with incurable gliomas used alternative medicines. A glioma is a type of brain or spinal cord tumor with a very poor prognosis, which occurs in about 10,000 Americans per year.

Of course, alternative medicines, by definition, are those which are unproven. If they did work, you can be sure that at least one greedy pharmaceutical company would happily jump on it and milk it for every cent they could. One thing that really did disturb me, though, was this finding from the German study: