Why dont people know that there are alternatives in cancer treatment abroad (Mexico, Asia, Europe, etc.), besides surgery, radiation, and chemo? I think looking at some numbers may help us to understand this. Feel free to correct my math on this if you see something screwy. The linked paper tells us that the average oncology practice has around 1200 patients with 9 physicians. Thats approximately 133 patients per oncologist. There are 13,028,000 cancer patients in the United States. Only 14,000 seek treatment in Mexico yearly on average. (700,000 have been treated in Mexico since 1963, which essentially started directly after the amendment of the Food and Drug Act with the Kefauver Amendment.) Thats approximately 0.1% of the cancer patient population. A very tiny fraction. This means that an oncologist will only encounter a patient who goes to Mexico for cancer treatment around once every 7 years or so. Thats IF that patient actually *tells* the doctor of his/her plan. Many patients wont. Theyre told to go home and talk to Hospice, and the oncologist never sees them again. In our case, we did consult with an oncologist, but on leaving it was agreed that if we wanted to sign up for his treatment (except for standard care at Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers), we would let him know. He probably just assumed we chose the less aggressive route at RMCC. This number will be further reduced according to success rate, and the interest of the patient in going back to the oncologist to inform them of what happened. Otherwise, the doctor will assume they are dead. It seems reasonable that this percentage is small enough that the doctor can chalk up any successes to a spontaneous remission. Even if its in a terminal cancer patient. Thoughts? jop.ascopubs.org/content/9/1/9.long
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 22:30:57 +0000
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