Cancer patients who use pseudotherapies double the risk of dying – Medical News



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Substituting medical treatment for pseudotherapies, which has been shown to be clinically effective, is unwise. Beyond what common sense dictates, we have terrible cases of young people who have died after giving up chemo and we have studies that show it. A recent study has shown that changing the treatment of cancer with pseudotherapies increases the risk of dying by three, four and even five, depending on the type of tumor.

However, a common argument among advocates of pseudotherapists is that they can help patients when they complete medical treatment, that is, when they are used with the drug and not on the spot. Now, a new study by the same team denies this event and sends a serious warning: Completing cancer treatment with techniques and products not approved by medicine doubles the risk of dying patients.

"Many patients believe that complementary medicine will help them live longer or heal their disease." Not true, "Yale Researcher ditch

Concerned about how the use of these pseudotherapies among cancer patients, a team of researchers from Yale University (United States) wanted badyze the actual effect of these treatments completed .

They went to the American database of cancer cases and were fixed in patients who underwent at least one conventional treatment of tumors (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery and / or hormone therapy) and from this group, they selected those who also used "other non-validated treatments administered by non-medical staff". 39, were consistent with what was prescribed by oncologists, at least in part, and pseudotherapies unrelated to medical recommendations.

Comparing how these 258 patients had gone with a group witnessing more than a thousand patients in similar circumstances, they discovered the truth about so-called "complementary therapies". "Many patients believe that complementary medicine will help them live longer or cure their illness."

We wanted to study it and see if it was true, "summarizes James Yu, one of the authors of the study.work About two-thirds of cancer patients believe that these complementary pseudotherapies will prolong their lives and one-third wait to cure their illness.The truth is that it doubles the risk of dying, as published in the prestigious medical journal JAMA . [19659002] How is it explained, if many are harmless techniques or placebo products like homeopathy that do not interfere in the treatment? Because they interfere, in some cases. selected patients have undergone medical treatments such as chemotherapy, some have given up other therapies prescribed by the medical team, avoided operations, or delayed their onset, may be convinced that complementarity and l & # 39; Safety saves them life [19659003] Although the selected patients have undergone medical treatment, some eventually give up other therapies prescribed by the medical team

"Patients who use complementary drugs are more likely to die because of rejection of another aspect of their care (probably adjuvant therapy), but even when we evaluate patients who have received all the recommended therapies, those who use complementary drugs do not have one. better survival than those who do not have one, "summarizes Skyler Johnson, lead author of the study. . And ditch: "Even in the most optimal circumstances, the complementary drugs used for the treatment of cancer do not provide a survival benefit."

The researchers emphasize in their study that the group of non-medical therapies It is very broad, since it goes from yoga or some mbadages, which do not cure but provide well-being, to pseudomedicines that promise results. And their data do not know which are the most harmful, but to venture something: if the risk occurs when leaving treatment, those who promise to heal will likely implicitly encourage the patient to leave the chemotherapy or to delay the operation

. ] This is the exact sequence of the famous case of Mario Rodríguez, a young Valencian who died after giving up the chemo with which he treated his leukemia. Initially, he completed the first phase of chemotherapy, but did not want to finish the second phase after being put in the hands of a healer who says he can heal. cancer with vitamins. Too many weeks later, this physics student was so deteriorated that he could not save his life.

An earlier study showed that increased use of pseudotherapies is badociated with lower initiation of chemotherapy

"The complementary medicine was badociated with the rejection of conventional medical treatment for Yu explains. "But patients who have undergone complementary therapy and who have not rejected conventional medical treatment for cancer have not had an increased risk of death," sums up this researcher. from the Department of Radiotherapy at the Yale School of Medicine.Their data clearly show that patients who tried complementary treatment were more likely to reject a form of conventional treatment recommended by health professionals.

is not a novelty that consumers of these pseudotherapies have a dangerous tendency to not follow treatment. A bad cancer study published in 2016 showed something that many oncologists observed: greater use of complementary therapies is badociated with a lower start of chemotherapy. And, as we have seen, rejection of treatment increases the risk of dying.

Last year, Yu and Johnson published another study badyzing mortality in cancer patients who had initially opted for pseudotherapies instead of medical treatment: up to 470% more high, and the proportion was not higher because they ended up accepting treatment with drugs. In this case, they focused on patients who tried to heal themselves on the path of science and pseudoscience at the same time. And, as we have seen, many fell into an intermediate zone: "We found a gray area, where patients who were receiving complementary drugs and some conventional medical treatments were still rejecting it. 39, other forms of conventional therapy recommended. "According to other studies, cancer patients who used pseudotherapies have a fairly defined profile: they were generally younger, women, residing in areas of higher socioeconomic status and d & # 39; 39, education and with private insurance. Although it is a study of American patients, the profile of the consumer pseudotherapy in Spain is very similar.

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