The 3E-Program
Lothar Hirneise
If you are a cancer patient and talk with your doctor about a cancer therapy, what are the most interesting points for you?
To Treat or Not to Treat
First, you want to know if this treatment helps you in comparison when you do nothing.
There are actually cancer patients, especially those who are in stage 4 cancer, who would prefer to skip with chemotherapy or any other treatment knowing that the cancer will eventually spread through their system and it would only be a matter of time and the sad truth that the cancer can drag the patient to her last breath.
Whether to undergo any treatment in hope to prolong life and be touch by a miracle or simply to let nature take its course. The decision is up to the patient and her loved ones. But, certainly to treat or not treat both have (negative or positive) side effects.
Conventional versus Alternative Treatment
The second important question for you is whether there is another, possibly better treatment, doesn´t matter whether a conventional or alternative treatment.
Germany is known for its advance technical advances and high level of medical care while China is known for its use of herbs for treatment of diseases. But, nowadays cancer treatment can be availed from any local hospitals. But, the success rate of these treatments vary so it is very important to do your research from the doctor treating you to the kind of treatment you are choosing.
Side Effects of the Treatment
And the 3rd question will be what are the side effects of this treatment.
Over the last 50 years thousands of studies have been conducted. Billions of dollars have been spent on studies for decades, and most patients think that doctors who prescribe these therapies will also know if these treatments can actually help you or not. BUT Is it really like that?
Let’s take a look at the most important question: whether this treatment helps you in comparison to when you do nothing.
We all know that the so-called gold standard of studies is the randomized double-blind study. But did you know that this standard is not applied in oncology? If you want to know if a treatment helps you or not, you need a study with two groups of people: a group that receives this therapy and a group that does not receive this therapy. And precisely these studies, which are common in all other faculties of medicine, do not exist in oncology.
And why? It is impossible to give one group chemotherapy and the other group gets a placebo, because of course you know exactly after one day, which group gets what and so it is not a double blind study anymore. One would have to use so-called “active plazebos”, which create similar side effects. But that no pharma company would accept, because then it could also come out that, For example, a certain chemotherapy would maybe not better work than doing nothing.
The really interesting thing here is that the main question for any cancer patient was never answered in one single study in oncology. This is comparable to the fact that a car magazine would always compare only two old cars and never look at a new BMW, Porsche or Mercedes as a comparison car.
But what does it actually mean for a cancer patient? First of all, if a patient is offered a therapy and the doctor then throws around with some great numbers, which is usual, then you always have to ask – and now comes the very important: – in Comparison to what! Compared to another conventional therapy, compared to doing nothing, or even compared to an alternative therapy? If I always compare McDonalds to Burger King, then I always eat only hamburger and have no idea of real good food.
It is also ridiculous when I hear over and over again that alternative therapies do not have good studies. But how? No university in the so-called Western world would permits such studies? This is like when I say to someone your food tastes terrible – but I’ve never tried it!
The fact is that conventional medicine is always saying they have this great randomized double blind studies, but in fact they do not have ANY meaningful numbers at all! The only question that conventional doctors can answer is just whether chemotherapy A or B or C is better. BUT WHO wants to know this? For sure not a cancer patient!
So if you read next time somewhere how good or how bad is a particular therapy then please remember my words that the most important question is always: compared with what?