Beyond the Magic Bullet
The Anti-Cancer Cocktail
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- $299.00
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- $299.00
Descripción editorial
While scientists win occasional skirmishes in the battle against cancer, the overall war continues to go badly. Stories abound about revolutionary drugs that may be available in the future, but offer no real help to those who have cancer today. At present, conventional approaches continue to rely on a narrowly focused strategy of treatments, with doctors using, at best, only one or two drugs or other therapies at a time. While this may be acceptable in a laboratory setting or a clinical trial, it has done little to diminish the number of people who die each year from this dread disease. Recently, however, conventional medicine’s core strategy has been re-examined, and a new, potentially more effective approach has emerged—one that combines the best of Eastern wisdom with Western science. Beyond the Magic Bullet—The Anti-Cancer Cocktail by Dr. Raymond Chang takes a penetrating look at this bold new way of treating cancer.
The book begins by examining modern medicine’s use of surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and targeted drugs in the war against cancer. It then offers a new therapy based on the knowledge that certain off-label drugs, nutrients, and therapies are each somewhat effective against cancer...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nothing reliably cures cancer yet so patients should try everything, according to this optimistic primer on "integrative" oncology. Chang, an oncologist and practitioner of integrative medicine, which combines conventional and alternative approaches, argues that a single "magic bullet" cancer drug will not materialize; he advocates a "cocktail strategy" featuring kitchen-sink ensembles of medical regimens that attack cancers in many different ways. He urges patients to accept conventional surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, but the book's heart is a lengthy compendium of "unconventional" treatments: pharmaceuticals from aspirin to antidepressants with "off-label" anticancer uses; vitamins and nutritional supplements; homeopathic remedies; traditional Chinese medicine; herbal teas. Claims about alternative cancer treatments are notoriously slippery, and while Chang backs this up with peer-reviewed studies, he doesn't systematically gauge the quality of those studies or clearly state the significance (or insignificance) of results. His treatment approach untested medicinal cocktails of many ingredients with complicated side effects is so complex, irregular, and improvisatory that it defies scientific assessment; his approach will attract patients willing to try a bewildering menu of options.
