Cancer experts warn of coffee enemas and juice diets amid rise in misinformation

The Guardian

2 days ago

Cancer patients are snubbing proven treatments in favour of quackery such as coffee enemas and raw juice diets amid an 'alarming' increase in misinformation on the web, doctors have said.
Some were dying needlessly or seeing tumours spread as a result, oncologists said. They raised their concerns at the world's largest cancer conference in Chicago, the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco).
Dr Fumiko Chino, a cancer researcher and assistant professor at MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, Texas, co-authored a paper presented in Chicago that said cancer misinformation had 'acutely worsened in the past decade'.
With more people being diagnosed amid a growing and ageing global population, misleading or false information about cancer had become a significant public health concern, the study said.
While most people trusted doctors, the paper found, more than half of those surveyed said experts seemed to contradict one another. One in 20 had no trust in scientists to provide cancer information. 'We're losing the battle for communication. We need to regain that battlefield,' Chino said.
Dr Julie Gralow, Asco's chief medical officer, said: 'Several patients of mine wanted an all-natural treatment approach after I had explained my treatment recommendations. They go online and search for something natural and they find a clinic in Mexico which promises an all natural treatment for cancer, which includes caffeine colonics, vitamin C infusions and other things.'
Instead of scolding patients for shunning surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy, Gralow said she tried to win their trust by still offering support.
'In several cases, they came back after three months and didn't feel any better. And then they stayed in our clinic and eventually we could gently ease them into more evidence-based treatments,' she said. 'A few times, they didn't come back. And then I would learn within nine months they tragically had died.'
Liz O'Riordan, a retired breast surgeon who was diagnosed with breast cancer, shares evidence-based information with her thousands of followers on social media.
She said: 'There is a huge amount of cancer misinformation online. Every day I get messages from scared women who want to know if they need to stop eating dairy, soy, flaxseeds. Do they need to stop wearing underwired bras, using deodorants? Is it true that juicing can cure cancer? What about miracle supplement cures like mushrooms and CBD?'
O'Riordan wants more doctors to engage with patients online. 'But this is hard as it takes a lot of time to script, film, edit and publish content as well as the effort needed to grow a community to get your voice heard above the noise … And when you don't have a million followers, it's impossible to get traction,' she said.
'What we're saying isn't sexy or exciting – we can't promise a cure. The drugs we give have side-effects and some people still die.'
Speaking at Asco, Dr Richard Simcock, the chief medical officer of Macmillan Cancer Support, said misinformation was 'very worrying' as it had 'exponentially increased the problem' of misconceptions about cancer.
'I have recently seen two young women who have declined all proven medical treatments for cancer and are instead pursuing unproven and radical diets, promoted on social media,' he said.
'A person is perfectly entitled to decline that therapy but when they do that on the basis of information which is frankly untrue or badly interpreted, it makes me very sad. It's clear that we have work to do to build back trust in evidence-based medicine.'
Prof Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England, said: 'Social media can provide a supportive community for people faced with a cancer diagnosis but at the same time, we're also seeing an alarmingly high level of misinformation on some of these platforms.
'I would urge people to be sceptical of any 'miracle cures' you may see on social media around cancer and use trusted, credible sources like the NHS website or your care team to verify anything you are unsure of – because these fairytales aren't just misleading, they can be harmful.'