Evaluating Alternative Cancer Therapies

An assemblage of interviews with leaders in the alternative cancer therapy field. They explain their philsophy of evaluation, their therapeutic preferences and the political and economic hurdles to getting the research done. Those interviewed include Keith Block, Robert Houston and Ralph Moss.

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At least half a million American cancer patients are using complementary and alternative medicine therapies such as dietary programmes, supplements, imagery and herbs, but little has been done to evaluate these therapies or to provide information about them to the public. As North American cancer rates in recent decades have risen so that a person's lifetime risk is now over one in three, the questions that patients and clinicians have about alternative treatments have continued to grow. How can patients and clinicians make sense of the various options? "Evaluating Alternative Cancer Therapies" offers an approach to the evaluation problems. Hess interviewed the major opinion leaders in the alternative cancer therapy field - clinicians, researchers, patient advocacy leaders and journalists - who explain their philosophy of evaluation, their therapeutic preferences, and the political and economic hurdles to getting the necessary research done.
Both a guide to the guides and a survey of the field, "Evaluating Alternative Cancer Therapies" provides a framework for evaluation problems that clinicians and patients face - from patient needs and the quality of potential clinical care givers to research methods, proposed policy reforms and the therapies themselves. Those interviewed include: Berkley Bedell; Keith Block; John Boik; Douglas Brodie; Francisco Contreras; Michael Culbert; Barry Chowka; W. John Diamond; John Fink; Norman Fritz; Gar Hildenbrand; Robert Houston; Michael Lerner; Patrick McGrady; Ralph Moss; Ross Pelton; Susan Silberstein; Morton Walker; and Frank Wiewel.