According to Peter Glidden, ND (Naturopathic Doctor), chemotherapy kills 97% of cancer patients. To wit: “People who accepted chemotherapy die within three years of diagnosis, a large number dies immediately after a few weeks.” The clock is ticking. My 16 rounds of chemo ended about a year ago. By Glidden’s estimate, I have about two years left before chemo kills me. Should the ink be drying on my last will and testament? Glidden’s video first appeared on Facebook in 2012. It’s been posted on a regular basis by Facebook armchair oncologists as if Glidden’s word is gospel. To give his anti-chemo rant an air of authenticity and believability, Glidden bases his ideas on the work of Hardin B. Jones, a Professor of Medical Physics and Physiology at Berkeley, California. In 1956, Jones published a paper (not a study as Glidden claims) titled “Demographic Consideration of the Cancer Problem.” Jones’ opinions were culled from several previous studies. It is not the scope of my article to go into details regarding Jones’ opinions. What interests me is a quote by Jones that has been taken out of context and used as some kind of anti-chemo “proof” on numerous alt-med sites. Jones offers a dim view regarding treatment, i.e., chemotherapy. In general, “skepticism surrounded the clinical usefulness of chemotherapy for cancer in the 1950s. A great deal of resources were being invested in a controversial effort to develop drugs, yet there was no evidence that drugs could cure or, for that matter, even help cancer patients in any stage despite some impressive antitumor responses…The ability of combination chemotherapy to cure acute childhood leukemia and advanced Hodgkin's disease in the 1960s and early 1970s overcame the prevailing pessimism about the ability of drugs to cure advanced cancers, facilitated the study of adjuvant chemotherapy, and helped foster the national cancer program. Today, chemotherapy has changed as important molecular abnormalities are being used to screen for potential new drugs as well as for targeted treatments.” (“A History of Cancer Chemotherapy,” Vincent T. DeVita Jr. and Edward Chu, November 2008) On page 331 of his paper, Jones writes: "It is most likely that, in terms of life expectancy, the chance of survival is no better with than without treatment, and there is the possibility that treatment may make the survival time of cancer less" It’s been noted elsewhere that “Jones made a number of such judgements while never himself ever being involved in cancer treatment or clinical research. He was a physiologist and statistician, attached at the time to the Atomic Energy Commission in Berkeley, California.” (“Hardin Jones and Cancer: the "Untreated Patients Live Four Times Longer" claim,” Alternative Medicine and Cancer.) Aside from his non-credentials in relation to cancer, Jones’ quote has gained life and misrepresentation in alt-med. It has mutated into various contexts and forms in alt-med’s crusade against chemo. The most common misquote is: “My studies have proved conclusively that cancer patients who refuse chemotherapy and radiation actually live up to four times longer than treated cases.” This isn’t what Jones wrote. Yet like a mutated cancer cell, Jones’ quote has changed shape and meaning and has become almost unrecognizable. Indeed, Jones’ life has morphed into a world famous cancer doctor if one is to believe some of the alt-med headlines like: “This Doctor’s 25 Years of Research Showed: Cancer Patients Live 4X Longer by Refusing Chemotherapy.” Never mind the fact that Jones was not a cancer researcher or clinician. In the world of alt-med, distortion and outright misrepresentation is what matters in their chemo-Big Pharma conspiracies. Then there is the matter of Glidden and his video. Oddly, some sites that feature the video identify Hardin B. Jones as the interviewed doctor. Unless you’re watching an episode of The Twilight Zone, this simply can’t be since Jones died in 1978. The real gist of Glidden’s video is his tirade against Big Pharm: “Ninety-seven percent of the time chemotherapy does not work…so why is it still used? Money. Chemotherapeutic drugs are the only classification of drugs that the prescribing doctor gets a direct cut of…the only reason chemotherapy is used is because doctors make money from it…period…it doesn’t work…97 percent of the time.” This makes sense since Glidden has his own naturopathic treatment to sell. Glidden says: “We have lost the war on cancer in the United States…why…when you try to bring a reductionistic phenomena like drugs and surgery to bear on a holistic phenomena, you will completely miss the boat each and every time…if every girl in this country took 200-micrograms of Selenium, in one generation, we’d eliminate breast cancer by 82%; now why aren’t we doing that?” According to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: “Selenium has not been shown to treat cancer or heart disease. Selenium is an element obtained in the diet from Brazil nuts, seafood, meats, cereals and grains. It is an essential part of the antioxidant enzyme glutathione-peroxidase, which protects cells from damage and DNA from mutations. For this reason, it has been studied for the prevention of diseases that are caused by or aggravated by this type of cellular damage, including cancer, heart disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. Selenium is also necessary for proper function of the immune system, but it is not known whether higher-than-normal levels of selenium can stimulate the immune system. Long-term use of selenium may increase the risk of certain types of cancer.” Brett Hermes writes: “Naturopathic cancer treatments have not been proven to replace conventional cancer treatments or to work safely or effectively in tandem with them. Since insurance companies do not cover alternative cancer practices, patients can easily rack up tens, if not, hundreds of thousands of dollars paying for therapies that do not help and that can cause harm. Naturopaths present these services as if they are beneficent, but make no mistake, the supplements, vitamins, and other therapies delivered to patients in a naturopathic clinic are all marked-up and sold to make a profit. This scheme is exactly what Glidden criticizes in the video: selling something that is not effective.” (“Naturopathic medicine has too much quackery,” Naturopathic Diaries, 2016.) It’s disconcerting that FB armchair oncologists indiscriminately post Glidden’s video. I’m not sure why they do this. Do they think they are helping cancer patients? The overwhelming majority of people who post Glidden’s video and other alt-med cancer cure remedies are not cancer patients themselves. At most, some may have lost loved ones to cancer and blame the doctors and/or chemo. But the only ones who can truly speak for cancer patients are the cancer survivors. We know, they don’t. If non-cancer people want to really understand what Cancerland is about, they should read the stories at www.ihadcancer.com/ IHadCancer provides current and archived stories that are written with great insight by cancer survivors. The best place to read and understand the cancer journey is Blue Hope Nation, sponsored by the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, on Facebook with over 10,200+ members. Want to know the reality of chemo? Blue Hope Nation has the answers. The main topic of discussion is chemo. You won’t find any members talking about chemo-Big Pharm conspiracies. Rather, we understand what chemo is about and share our experiences with chemo. Unfortunately, Blue Hope Nation is a closed group, and for good reason. It prevents trolls from coming on-board to spread their misinformation. In summing up chemo, Dan Wilson writes: “So how effective is chemotherapy? What makes this question hard to answer is that there are over 200 chemotherapies or cancer related drugs. Not every drug is equally as effective and some cancers are more easily treated than others. What we can say is that chemotherapy can be an effective tool against cancers, especially when used in conjunction with other treatments. This has been shown throughout history with multiple examples of chemotherapeutic drugs drastically increasing survival rate in and even outright curing certain kinds of cancer.” (“Debunked: Dr. Peter Glidden: Chemotherapy only works 2% of the time,” Dan Wilson, Metabunk.org, 2017) FB armchair oncologists are not doing cancer patients any favors by spreading misinformation about quack cancer cures and remedies. The danger of giving false hope is that it gives an excuse for some cancer patients to forego proper treatment for their disease and, instead, use snakeoil formulas that will not do one thing to halt the progression of The Beast. This isn’t to say that chemo is a walk in the park. After sixteen rounds of chemo in 2016-2017, I know about the nausea, fatigue, appetite loss, diarrhea, cold sensitivity, and hair loss. A few of those side effects still linger. But that’s the price I’ve paid to battle The Beast. Perhaps someday The Beast will reappear. If so, it won’t be because chemo failed me. It will be because of the nature of The Beast – cunning, baffling, and powerful. As for FB armchair oncologists – kept your misguided empathy to yourself. Don’t walk a mile in our shoes unless you’re in our shoes. © All Rights Reserved, Robert DesJarlait, 2018
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Robert Desjarlait
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