Often desperate and filled with fear, cancer patients sometimes can't help grasping at straws — and so they start surfing the Internet in search of a cure. They will find many ineffective products cruelly touted as cancer remedies by greedy or misguided promoters.
Now the FDA has warned 25 companies that they must stop sales and Internet promotions of 125 pills, creams, and tonics falsely hyped as cancer cures. By law, any medical product advertised as a cure or treatment for cancer — or, for that matter, any other disorder — must be approved by the FDA, and only after that agency has first reviewed its safety and effectiveness.
One substance long advertised to prevent or cure cancer is laetrile or amygdalin, made from apricot seeds and supposedly containing "vitamin B17." Although neither the existence of this vitamin nor its benefits for humans have ever been proven, the Cancer Cure Foundation, a non-profit organization providing information on alternative and integrative therapies, lists more than 40 foods that contain vitamin B17.
Another Web site claims that a product named LifeOne is a cancer cure and states that this merchandise is safe because it contains 100 percent (unspecified) natural ingredients. Other "medicines" said to cure cancer or relieve its symptoms contain ingredients like burdock root, shark cartilage (remember "sharks don't get cancer"? — Ah, but it turns out they do), red raspberries, coral calcium, cat's claw, herbal teas, and certain types of mushrooms like shiitake, maitake, and reishi.
Although the FDA does not have evidence that any of these fake cancer cures have caused any deaths, it does warn about a group of products termed "black salves." Black salves are tarry substances said to cure cancer by "drawing out" the disease from under the skin. Instead of curing cancer, though, these corrosive ointments can eat away at the skin and underlying tissues, leaving behind unsightly scars.
But even if these products are not directly harmful, they may interfere with the actions of prescribed medications or tempt people to use them instead of proven and effective medical treatments.
The "Road to Healing" Web site, another promoter of a cancer cure, has already closed as the result of earlier threatened legal action by the Federal Trade Commission, and others are likely to close soon, based on the recent warnings from the FDA.
Still, cancer patients, when reading any advertisements for cancer cures, should always be on the lookout for the following red flags:
- "shrinks malignant tumors"
- "avoid painful surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or other conventional treatments"
- "treats all forms of cancer"
- "natural, non-toxic, and doesn't make you sick"
- "treat non-melanoma skin cancers easily and safely"
- "destroys cancer cells"
People who are already using such "cancer-curing" products should talk to their doctor about stopping them, seek immediate medical attention if they have experienced any side effects while taking them, and then, as soon as possible, begin effective medical treatment if they have not already.
