Breaking Ground: Alternative Therapies for People with Cancer

The AMA received the penultimate wake-up call in 1993 when a watershed article in the New England Journal of Medicine reported American cancer patients had spent nearly 14 billion dollars on alternative forms of treatment. Now (I'll refrain from saying something snide about protecting market share), cancer treatment centers nationwide are embracing a more encompassing gestalt, melding traditional methods of treatment with new--actually quite ancient--healing therapies including acupuncture, meditation, homeopathy and just about anything that focuses on an individual's innate ability to stimulate their own immune system. This video provides an overview of the cornucopia of alternative treatments currently being practiced in the U.S., and includes interviews with cancer survivors who overcame dire diagnoses by, according to their testimony, adopting unconventional cures. Some holistic health service providers espouse the validity of their treatments in the video, and medical doctors appear as well, agreeing to disagree, leaving the viewer somewhat at wit's end as to who to heed. We're left with a pretty decent shopping list of alternative cancer treatments currently available to patients, though none are given much more than an honorable mention in this succinct presentation. Interesting, but optional. (W. Pierce)