At last, some independent research on chemotherapy, offering an unbiased appraisal, albeit on a small sector (late-stage) of cancer patients.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/nov/12/health-cancer-chemotherapy-palliative-care

"Serious questions are today raised about chemotherapy for seriously ill cancer patients, some of whom die as a result of the drugs they are taking.

An inquiry into more than 600 deaths within 30 days of chemotherapy has found the treatment probably either caused or hastened death in 27% of cases. . . . .

. . . . The inquiry was carried out by the independent NCEPOD (National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death), whose members come mainly from the medical royal colleges.

Its findings raise difficult issues about what doctors think they are doing and what patients and their families want. Some of those who died were receiving chemotherapy to try to combat the cancer, but more were given it as palliative care ... to reduce the symptoms and give them a better quality of life as it drew to an end.

Patients usually suffer side-effects from chemotherapy, said the report's co-author Mark Lansdown, a surgical oncologist. But most patients in the study were receiving palliative treatment in which the aim was to alleviate symptoms of cancer with minimum side-effects. Yet 43% of all patients in the study suffered significant treatment-related toxicity."

It must be bad enough to have contracted a deadly disease, without having to fear the treatment. Medical research must be based more on reality, like this work, rather than on the hypothetical and irrelevant products of animal experimentation. Iatrogenic disease will continue, while research is commercially-oriented and animal-based.

 [Why not take a look at www.alternativevet.org while you're here?]