Evaluating Alternative Cancer Therapies: A Guide to the Science and Politics of an Emerging Medical Field

by David J. Hess

In Evaluating Alternative Cancer Therapies , David Hess has 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, this innovative book 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.

260 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1998

Reviews

[Beth Haynes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this book is old (published in 1999) I found it fascinating and providing an important perspective on a blind spot in medicine. Complimentary and alternative medicine (CAM)has gained some greater acceptance since this book was written, but not as much as it needs to be.

The recent experience of an internet friend with the integrative treatments in Mexican clinics and hospitals (because the therapies offered are illegal in the US) combined with my recent research into the treatment of cancer sparked by a friend battling cancer of the prostate, has renewed my interest in holistic medicine (mind, body, spiritual integration). With my work the past 2 years as Exec. Dir of the Benjamin Rush Institute, I have focused on a different part of holisitic medicine -- the economics of medicine and healthcare delivery. but part of the picture has to include not just who pays and how prices are set, but also who gets to make what decisions. The growing involvement of government in getting to say what choices doctors can offer and patients can take is harming progress as well as violating rights.

This book add one piece of the puzzle in our understanding of how legal restrictions (justified by claims they will protect patients) are causing real harm, not just to our personal liberties but to medical progress and to matters of health, suffering, life and death.

The book is a series of interviews with leaders (at the time) of "outside of the box" cancer treatment. the books; subtitle, 'A Guide to the Science and the Politics of an Emerging Medical Field" sums it up quite nicely.