Because most alternative medicines have no known scientific data (just a lot of hopeful wishing) but some people insist on using them there have been studies done at the major comprehensive cancer facilities. There is also research being done in the US Institute of Health at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine:

NCCAM

Studies on the benefits or non benefits of any complementary, alternative, herbal, or supplemental products are also investigated at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and at MD Anderson Cancer Center – both highly respected medical cancer facilities.

Memorial Sloan Kettering: Integrative Medicine – they have extensively investigated herbs and supplements for efficacy

M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Complementary/Integrative Medicine

Edit: For your information and because it seems you do not understand cancer or its various treatments . . there are some patients, doctors, and cancer centers now that do ‘indiviudalize’ a patients treatment by ‘tumor analysis’ – the test a sample of the individual patients tumor to see which chemotherapy drugs are most effective against the disease in the lab – and than recommend the ‘treatment’ just for that one patient. I believe that Mass General now requires this approach.

Mass General Starts Personalized Cancer Program

Edit – About the claim that alternative cancer treatments are a big money industry – According to IMS Health, a company which provides market intelligence to the pharmaceutical industry, Americans spent roughly 200 billion dollars on prescription drugs in 2002 alone , accounting for approximately half the worldwide total. Presumably a large portion of this amount went towards cancer “treatment” prescriptions. Based on those figures it should be obvious which industry is raking in the most profits from cancer.

If a medicine has been tested and proven to be effective, it is no longer ‘alternative medicine’, it is just ‘medicine’.

Warm, fuzzy feelings about how herbs and homeopathy can treat cancer will come from people with little or no experience of cancer; people who have had or been close to cancer usually take a very different view.

On of our semi-regular ‘alties’ on this board answered a question the other day by saying ”The fact is that if you get cancer, and use orthodox treatments, you will almost certainly die of cancer, or at best spend the rest of your life on chemotherapy.” Thumbs ups from the alternative medicine crowd of course, but a big surprise to those of us who had conventional treatments and have survived cancer by several years. As I said, these claims always come from people who know little to nothing about cancer.

Alternative cancer treatments are a multimillion dollar/pound industry – a huge money spinner. Wherever there’s cancer there’s a ruthless charlatan (or half a dozen) eager to part desperate and vulnerable people from their cash in exchange for herbs, machines, seeds, teas, vitamins etc – all guaranteed to cure cancer of course.

It’s bad enough that these greedy charlatans scam people with ineffective and sometimes dangerous (and at best unproven) ‘treatments’, without doctors doing it too.

Yes, doctors are obliged to use evidence-based medicine rather than something they read about on the internet.

However, sadly people will go down roots that are rarely good for them because they are mislead by so called specialists who have been given the go ahead by government to control their fate, at everyone else’s expense. Lets face it they get funded no matter whether they succeed or not!
People need nurture and kind treatments as it stands its a kill or cure philosophy, people praise them when they apparently do their best using the drugs or dangerous radiation treatment. But when people die painfully its, “Aww…so sorry about that we did what we could”, which is a lie when they only have the “business” interests of management as a priority, so its best for them they don’t stray from the agenda under any circumstances its “policy”, they need to keep their job after all.

Its a stitch up surrounded by myth’s for instance they often tell us they don’t have the resources when a hospital is clearly full of staff, unused equipment, beds, people funded private cleaning companies rushing in behind closed doors. Considering “specialists” will always have time and equipment for Private patients whilst they CAN simply leave the NHS ones hanging with worry and sickness originally through being messed about with single appointments/visits for one test, whilst really awaiting acceptance for treatment yet grateful for poor care raised hopes and a false sense of security.
Carers in the system will do all the dirty work for whatever pays, specialists decide who get treated and with what and put those in charge are more malleable when paid more to make the orders clear to slaves. Because in reality the lower they are in the pecking order the more they care, the more the others are paid the less it matters, it only has to appear like they are busy, no-one knows the long term effects of drugs being handed out like smarties.
However, the Chinese have been using alternative for thousands of years and do well on it.

There is also hypocrisy and “Double Standards” when there is evidence to suggest NOTHING is being done to prevent the risk of cancer with poisonous foods on our shelves. And particularly in light of more Nuclear power plants being built, when one of them goes pop like Chernobyl……… WE ARE ALL f’cked anyway! So its all money down the drain to preserve any life.

Sorry to vent here but its all relevant.

Regards E

The duty of a medical doctor is to ethically treat illness and do no harm. Neither of those provisions are met by using unproven, unscientific, and nonsensical “alternative” treatments.

Alternative medical products have not been tested and or proved to have useful effects.

They are simply inert rock.